Day 2 - The Tossachs and Argyle

A slow start to today. We were catching up on the sleep we missed on the flight here and sort of over slept our stay at the B&B. We awoke with our host giving a polite tap on the door to remind us it was almost the end of breakfast time. Sheepishly (a fitting expression for Scotland) we showed up for a splendid breakfast. Our plan was to book a place in Oban for tonight but it appears everyone else is vacationing in the Highlands too. We finally located a seaside hotel south of Oban and set off on our day's driving tour. I don't think I included a photo of where we spent last night so here is our quaint Scottish rural stone house. Really nice hosts. A great bed for weary travellers.

Our first driving stop was in Aberfoyle where we spotted a Scottish Tourism Information Centre. These are great, similar to what we encountered in New Zealand. We had time to do a quick stroll around town and pick up some essentials (a SIM Card, beer and wine). Really cute buildings. They really love their sweet shops.

On our way to Callander, we passed by this superb residence (not sure if it is private or an inn).

We had time to walk the main street of Callander, lots of typical local shops and lots of ice cream and sweets.

And this is the local Home Depot.

From there we were off to the burial ground of Rob Roy near Balquhidder. An interesting church and burial ground.

Next was a visit to Killin to view the falls. These apparently look spectacular to the Scotts.

We enjoyed meeting the English Cocker Spaniels. (The owner claimed they were Scottish Cocker Spaniels but I didn't want to get into a political debate so I just said ours must have been Canadian Cocker Spaniels).

Now we had to stop at a castle. Our tour guide information had Kilchurn Castle on our route so we stopped there. Totally unmarked by any signs (because its free) but we finally found the parking lot and 1 km hike to the castle ruins.

It was now getting late because of our late departure so we had to get driving to our destination of Crinan. We passed through Inverary and along Loch Fyne before picking up the Crinan Canal and following it to its inlet at Loch Crinan. This is a very old canal and locks that joins the Sound of Jura and Loch Fyne.

The last part of our drive involved about 10km of "Single Track" road. Chris was again terrified.
Here is how the Scottish highway engineering project meeting probably went... "Angus, we saved all that money with the 8 foot lanes and no shoulders, do you realize we could save another 50% on asphalt by eliminating one of those lanes? We would only need to provide the occasional wee 1/2 lane turn out to let them pass! It will be really fun if we don't put them at the blind corners!"

Well, we finally got to Crinan and got into our room at the "only" hotel. Quite an institution. The room was fine with a splendid water view across the loch of a sheep pasture and an occupied castle.

After a trip to the seafood bar, we were nourished and had time to wait and wait for sunset.

Sunset took forever! It finally went down at close to 10:00 pm and "blue hour" extended well past 11:00.

After sunset, we spent an hour or so looking for accommodation on the Isle of Skye to no avail and decided to modify our plans and head to Inverness tomorrow.