Day 48: Cramond - Laggan Dam

The wind in the morning was so strong it almost messed up my fur... and I don't even have bangs! But the sun was shining and that's always a good sign. We took the opportunity to play with the ball for a while on the promenade, on that grass that looks like a professional football field. Daddy Edu runs less than me, but he puts in the effort.

We left around twelve, heading north. We crossed the Forth estuary again, this time over the Queensferry Crossing, a modern and elegant bridge, with three pylons that look like giant sewing needles. Inaugurated in 2017, it replaced the old Forth Road Bridge for daily traffic, and is now the main bridge to cross this part of the country. It's a pleasure to go through there, and the views are so spectacular that my jaw almost dropped with excitement (thank goodness it's well-secured).

After an hour in the car, it was time to eat. We stopped in the parking lot of a small nature reserve, very quiet, very green and very ideal... until Daddy Edu realized that we had to pay four pounds just to park. And if you wanted to spend the night, ten! It's not that it's not worth it, but we weren't going to stay that long. So, after making an express repair to the buckle on the roof of the campervan, we packed everything up and left.

Almost an hour later, after leaving behind many curves and sheep, we found another better place: the parking lot of a souvenir shop full of Scottish products and buses with tourists. There we ate, Daddy Edu took a look inside at the souvenirs and then we shot off again towards the north.
We passed bordering the Cairngorms National Park, the largest in the UK. There are high mountains, endless forests, deer, beavers and even Scottish wildcats (like me but without a leash!). But today wasn't a day for deep explorations, so we kept going.

In Laggan we tried to stop to sleep, but the place had no mobile phone coverage and that, for Daddy, is like sleeping without a blanket. Just as we were turning around, we saw a guy hitchhiking. He was going to Fort William and since we were more or less going in that direction, we picked him up. He was nice, talked a lot and seemed to have no cold, heat or worries. We left him at the crossroads and we continued west.

Before reaching our next destination, Loch Lochy (yes, that's its name, it's not a double error!), we made a stop at the monument to the Scottish commandos. It's a sculpture of three soldiers looking towards Ben Nevis, in honor of the training they did here during the Second World War. The place commands respect. And the view, phew... even more so.

At Loch Lochy we tried to stay to sleep, but again without coverage! It seemed that an anti-internet force field was chasing us. We continued on the road and... boom! Traffic jam. Construction blocked the road completely, and no temporary traffic lights, no: total stop. There were already about thirty cars in the queue and not one moved. We waited a long time, but when we saw that even the sheep weren't moving, we turned around.

Then we wanted to try a place in the Glen Roy National Nature Reserve, famous for its mysterious parallel lines on the slopes, caused by ancient glacial lakes. The road was so winding that I felt like I was on a roller coaster without a seatbelt. In the end we arrived at a beautiful place with incredible views, but you guessed it... zero coverage! Not a single bar. Again we had to turn around.

Finally, we found a parking lot overlooking the Laggan Dam, a hydroelectric dam from the 1930s that forms a small, very photogenic reservoir. Here, at least, there's some signal, a couple of discreet neighbors and a bench to sit and look at the water. Well, I prefer chasing shadows, but you get the idea.

So here we are, parked a little close to the road, but with beautiful views and space to stretch our legs. We're going to have dinner and sleep. And may another construction site not cross our path tomorrow!