LlamaBlog

Another damp day, we set off heading North and West, passing along the A9 at Lochearnhead. After a few hours driving in the rain we got to Fort William where I noticed that the brakes on the van were playing up and only seemed to be effective if you pretty much stamped on them. We managed another 40 miles or so to Invergarry before I decided we had to stop. We found great little campsite, though the steep hill to reach it made me wonder whether we’d make it down the next day to find a garage. We got a pitch on the mountainside on a kind of grassy outcrop.

After pitching the van we dug out the little 5inch black & white TV and watched the news. The second story was about a landslide on the A9 at Lochearnhead at 5pm that day, which caused a section of road to be cut off and 57 people needed airlifting to safety from their vehicles. We’d passed that exact spot just a couple of hours before the landslide!

After hearing that Vic started to get a bit worried about our mountain-side pitch but it wasn’t really a good idea to move.

The weather forecast was for even more downpour, so we battened down the hatches and covered the inside of the leaky skylight with a towel and binliner. We then settled in for the night, with the wind and rain crashing round the van.

We were woken at 4am by having a load of cold rainwater dumped on our feet (and the duvet). The towel and binliner had become so soaked that they had given way, dumping the water that had collected all over our feet. Rapid repairs were performed and we tried to get some more sleep.