No sign of Nessie!

With the car once more loaded, we set off to Glen Nevis youth hostel, at the foot of Ben Nevis, near Fort William. This turned out to be a day with a few disappointments.

The first section of the journey we had done before but still enjoyed the views, particularly the fairy tale castle at Dunrobin. Having passed through Inverness twice already, we took the road to the west of the city, through Dingwall and Beauly to Drumnadrochit. Here we had hoped to have a picnic lunch at Urquart Castle and explore the ruins. This was our first disappointment. At the gate stood a man holding a clipboard. ‘Have you booked?’ he asks. ‘Er, no.’ After a brief exchange when he explained we would have to book on line for entry an hour later, we sadly decided we would have to continue our journey without seeing the castle.

The drive down the side of Loch Ness was also disappointing because we couldn’t see it through the trees, making sightings of Nessie impossible! There were no parking places big enough get out of the car for our lunch until we got to the village of Invermoriston, which is set back from the water. Moving on again, just as it started to rain, we continued to Fort Augustus. Here, at last, we could get a good view of the famous lake, enjoy a coffee between the river and the Caledonian canal and visit some craft and gift shops. Surprisingly, we also ticked ‘watch glass blowing’ off Racheal’s ‘Back to Basics Bucket List’.

The road from Fort Augustus to Fort William took us along the west shore of Loch Oich and the east of Loch Lochy, the latter was particularly pretty - and we could see it!

We arrived at Glen Nevis youth hostel and another disappointment which was to make life much more difficult for the next two nights. I have spent over a year researching places to stay, contacting each one directly often by phone. I always check that there will be a bed we can hoist Racheal onto, not bunk beds as there isn’t enough head room and with space below the bed for the wheels of the hoist. If a place can’t meet these essential requirements, I don’t book. So to be told by the young man, who was pleased to tell me that he was the person I’d spoken to a year ago, that all the accessible rooms have bunk beds did not make me very happy at all! I asked if there was an alternative room with a double or twin beds, but no. The only solution was to put a mattress on the floor and use her Promove sling to physically move her to and from positions we could then hoist her in and out of her chair. When I checked the hostel’s accessibility statement, it clearly says there are twin or bunk accessible rooms available, and shows photos, but this, apparently, was incorrect. An email to Hostelling Scotland will follow in due course!

And then it rained while I was unloading the car!