Chilling in Costa Rica

 I love my opening line on the previous post:  " I've come to the opinion that travel is rarely seamless".  It is humorous how innocuous statements such as the one above can bite you in the ass.  Nickie, my sister Christine and I booked a direct flight to Costa Rica.  That way, we wouldn't have any of the issues arising from connector flights, right?  Perhaps, perhaps not.  Our flight boarded beautifully and then we sat at the gate.  Then we sat some more.  Eventually, the pilot decided to let us in on the reasons.  Yes, plural.  First, a doohickey in the cockpit needed replacing.  I don't believe it was critical to our flight, but I'm all for having an airplane in 100% shape before take-off.  Then, there was a broken chair in the row behind us.  Another technician popped by and fixed the chair.  During this time, one of the passengers decided to disembark for medical reasons.  It happens.  We then waited for his/her luggage to be pulled from the plane.  2 HOURS after our scheduled departure time, we took off from Pearson Airport.

Big fern in Dominicalito

The flight was uneventful.  This is the best type of flight.  Delays / issues before take-off and after landing are a pain, but issues during the flight are not welcome.  Finally, we started our descent into the San Jose airport.  I heard the landing gear extend (this is good), then just before landing, the engines roared to life and we abruptly started to climb.  I've only been on one other flight where the landing was aborted.  This is an excellent way of making sure everyone is awake.  We started to circle and the pilot informed us there was too much fog to land.  He quickly added that the fog was expected to dissipate within 20 minutes.  Almost 3 hours after our scheduled arrival time, we were at our gate.   

I tend to book a hotel near the airport for the first night abroad.  This is handy when luggage goes AWOL.  Since our landing was supposed to be at 21:00, I wasn't keen on adding a four hour drive to the mix.  We booked a room in San Jose for the first night.  The car rental agency closed at 23:00.  Since we made it through customs shortly after midnight, we could not pick up our rental car.  We took a taxi to our hotel in San Jose and returned the next day for our rental car.

At the condo in Dominicalito

Finally, we were on the road, travelling to Dominicalito, which is sort of a suburb of Dominical.  The area has broad beaches and nearby hiking trails.  The hotel we stayed at was up a steep hill from the highway.  Costa Ricans don't fool around with their road grades.  The trick is to never slow down, no matter how close to death you are.  I had driven in CR before, but it was Christine's first time on their "side roads".  I could tell she was enjoying the drive up the hill based on the screams coming from the back seat.

View from the upper pool

Our condo in Dominicalito was wonderful.  It was set along a cliff facing the ocean.  The unit had 2 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms, a full kitchen, dining area and living room.  Outside was a small pool with incredible views of the ocean.  The water from the small pool formed a waterfall that ended up in a large infinity pool below.  This presented a slight quandary, as it was very very relaxing by the pools (and closer to the bar).  We also had the option of driving down the hill from hell and spending time on the beach.  We enjoyed both options, but at times we looked for excuses not to drive to the beach.  We only entertained valid excuses, such as "the sun will be down in 8 hours", or "there is a cloud 20 km west of the beach.  It might rain".

Nickie and I decided on a hike to the Nuayaca waterfall.  It was a pleasant slog through some steamy terrain.  The falls are beautiful, although I did not get a good picture of the upper chute.  There was too much mist for my camera.  We also found a great Soda (small local restaurant) nearby.  The food was quite good and the view was excellent.

Nuayaca Falls lower chute

It did rain almost every day of our visit to CR.  We were told this was not normal weather.  The rainy period tends to end in early November and by December, it is mostly sunny.  However, experiencing rain at 5 C is a lot different than rain when it is 28 degrees.  We almost welcomed the rain!  The rain was a factor in deciding where we would eat one night.  We had chosen a restaurant that was up a hill.  To call it a road is to denigrate roads in general.  It was steep with no shoulders and boasted some impressive potholes.  For Canadian readers, I should mention that "pothole" is misleading.  Some of the "potholes" were large enough to swallow the front end of a truck.  The trick is to swerve around these holes.  This can be tricky when climbing an impossibly steep hill.  We had rented a Toyota Rush as our hotel had recommended renting a 4-wheel drive.  "Rush" must be Japanese for "Lethargic".  I had it floored on the way up the road and we were slowing down.  Eventually, the wheels started to spin and we started going backwards down the hill.  Not wanting to ditch the car in teeming rain,  I decided to use the brakes.  We continued to descend backwards, but now the front wheels were locked.  I would ease pressure on the brakes just before the front end went into the ditch, then reapply the brakes to avoid speeding up on a steep dark road while going backwards.  I was having trouble hearing over the screams emanating from Nickie and Christine.  Fun times!

Nickie and Christine at the upper pool

My original plan was to try it again, once we found a relatively flat spot on which to accelerate.  Unfortunately,  there was now 2 cars ahead of me (I'm still going backwards) coming down the hill and a big truck behind me trying to go up.  After pulling into a driveway and letting the traffic sort itself out, "we" decided to continue down the hill.  Nearby we found what might be the best restaurant in Costa Rica.

I don't normally promote restaurants, but if you are ever in the area, consider a meal at La Palapa, located at the Cuna Del Angel hotel.  I assume we lucked out as it was not crowded and the staff were bored.  They went out of their way to provide us with an incredibly entertaining meal!  We watched for at least 30 minutes while our waiter (obviously a chef in some other life) prepared our dessert.  I've never seen anyone use that much Grand Marnier to flambe a dessert!  It was pricey, but worth it for the excellent cuisine and entertainment.

Sunset in Dominicalito

We also drove down to Punta Uvita, where one can go whale watching.  It was a nice walk along a large beach.  We went for a swim but did not see any whales.

Last Sunset picture - I promise!

After a week in the Dominical region, we headed north to Jaco, a beach town.  I was in Jaco in 2016 and wow, has it grown.  We stayed in a compound of 7 story condos.  There was a large shared pool with ample beach chairs and about 9 BBQ areas.  We could walk to the beach.  Jaco boasts a plethora of restaurants, some of which are quite decent.  At this point our interest in eating out was waning, so making meals at the condo was a pleasant option.

I call Him Art...

One of our excursions was to Isla Tortuga (turtle Island).  We were picked up at the condo at 06:00 and drove about 90 minutes to the ferry dock.  The ferry took another 90 minutes to reach Tortuga.  Included in the package was the shuttle, breakfast (a baloney sandwich), ferry, snorkeling and lunch (buffet).  At $135 USD each, the trip was not overly expensive, but failed to impress.  I joked with Nickie that we just paid $400 CAD and travelled 6 hours to a beach that was almost as good as the Jaco beach!  Snorkeling was a disappointment. We were brought to a small area with cloudy water saturated in plastic.  It is hard to describe just how much plastic there was, in the water.  Christine saw a fish but Nickie and I did not.  We were told that due to the excessive rain, the water was cloudy and a lot of plastic from the rivers had washed into the sea.  I feel that they could have made an attempt to find an area more appealing for snorkeling.

Condo in Jaco

Next was a trip to the Carara National Park.  The park has a few interesting trails through both wet and dry jungle.  I'm not sure what the difference was, as the excess rain during November made it difficult to see any variance.  I have pictures of monkeys from 2016, but we didn't see much wildlife this time.  We did see a squirrel, which will not likely impress Canadians.  I'll add a picture regardless, as it was a bit intimidating.  The trees are incredible and it was enjoyable simply being out in the jungle.

Nickie's tree

Scary Squirrel!

Woody

The flight home was a stark contrast to the flight out.  We took off on schedule and landed 20 minutes early.  After enjoying 25 - 28 degree days it was a rude shock to land in Toronto in snow and cold weather.  Nickie and I are planning a trip to Thailand, mainly to eat Thai food.  Our flights are booked (January 20 to February 14).  Hopefully maple syrup season will be patient and wait until I get back!

Campbell River, BC

 I've come to the opinion that travel is rarely seamless.  It makes sense, if you consider the failure points in any trip.  Delayed or cancelled flights, trains, buses, weather, illness and injuries.  Let's not include scheduling mistakes, because they never happen...

We decided to spend Thanksgiving with Nickie's daughter's family, who live in North Vancouver.  October is usually dicey weather in Vancouver, but aside from a little rain, what could go wrong?  To be fair, we enjoyed a few days of hiking in Campbell River, on the east coast of Vancouver Island.  The area is beautiful and with only 2 days to hike, we didn't start to cover all the incredible terrain in the area.  We are 87.6% certain we will be back in the near future.

Elk Falls
Note the suspension bridge at the top

Thanksgiving weekend was wet.  It rained just enough to make us hesitate about outdoor activity.  This is a problem with 2 grandchildren aged 5 and 7.  For those who subscribe to masochistic endeavors, perhaps a tiny bit more "character Building" is required, to make the experience truly rotten.  Try being sick at the same time.  Although Nickie recovered well from her illness while returning from Italy, I never fully recovered and since both grandsons were ill, perhaps I picked up a new strain...

So, Thanksgiving was a bit wet, then we hiked in Campbell River, then during our last weekend in Vancouver, it experienced record amounts of rain.  Do recall that this is Vancouver.  Not known for record breaking sunny weather.  Nickie and I went for a walk and although I wore a raincoat, my pants were soaked.  Some streets had 20 cm of water.  In one store, water was coming in at the bottom of the walls.  Wet!

Suspension Bridge over Elk Falls

Campbell river has numerous hikes within a short driving distance.  We started with a hike in the Elk Falls Provincial Park.  Surprisingly (to me), there was a waterfall in the park!  The trails in Elk Falls PP are not overly technical with only a modicum of elevation.  A nice trail when recovering from the flu.  There is a serious suspension bridge close to Elk Falls.  It got a little misty while taking pictures, but incredible views nonetheless.  We then hiked to the John Hart power station, crossing the famous Erna bridge.  For those who a keen on bridges, I should mention that Erna's bridge is quite tiny.  You might be disappointed if you spend thousands of dollars to go see it.  But who am I to judge?

Mini tree-house for rent?

The next hike was along the Crest Mountain trail.  Crest Mountain is shaped just like a tube of toothpaste - incredible to see!  Before you spend thousands of dollars to go see Crest Mountain, please read my note on Erna's bridge...

This is a serious hike with some serious elevation gain, but worth hiking if only to see an amazing forest.  The trees are truly impressive.  At one point I was told by Nickie that I wasn't allowed to take any more pictures of trees.  From then on, I took pictures of amazing rocks (which just happened to be beside an incredible tree).

The rock looks like a mirror image!

Crest Mountain Trail is in the Strathcona Provincial Park, which is over 250,000 hectares.  It is also the oldest provincial park in BC.  The trail is a bit technical in spots and there is 1,250 meters of elevation gain.  Although only 5K, give yourself a healthy 4 hours for this hike.

A couple of cedars

We did not make it to the top.  I thought I was recovering, but after 2+ hours of climbing, I was starting to fade.  And not the type of "fade" normally associated with a long climb, but a tiny bit of "write your will" fading.  After climbing through the large trees, the hike becomes a bit steeper.  Once there was snow on the trail, the discussion turned to getting back down.  As in "How the hell are we going to get back down?".  We were not far from where the trail becomes gradual and emerges from dense forest, but we decided to turn back.  Next time!

Much trickier than it looks!

Getting steep!

I'm beginning to like YVR.  I know it is smaller, but the Vancouver airport seems to be more efficient than Pearson in Toronto.  We dropped our rental car at an offsite agency.  The shuttle departed for the airport 15 minutes late, which is normally not an issue for us, but since our flight was at 10:10 and the shuttle left at 08:15, i was a bit concerned about the typical airport delays.  I don't know if magic was invoked, but we got to the airport, checked our bag, went through security and was at our gate by 09:00.  Not sure how that happened!

We now have 3 weeks off before a trip to Costa Rica.  Nickie and I will be travelling with my sister Christine.  She is the youngest of my siblings, but a true commando at heart.  This is likely due to being a teacher for 30+ years.  I expect her students were all terrified of her.  I know that we are.

Hiking in Italy

The title is a bit misleading...  I have been to Italy 5 times.  To sum up why, the food.  Those damn Italians make everything taste better.  It's not fair!  Salads are better.  How can anyone possibly make a salad "better" than elsewhere?  I answered this one myself when I noticed the chef popping out to the garden beside the restaurant and picking a few herbs.  Unlike Canadians, if the food is not excellent, Italians will go elsewhere!

Back to the misleading title.  Although we hiked in the Dolomites for a week, we also visited Venice and Verona.  Nickie had never been to Venice and although I had been there 2 years ago, it is a spot everyone should experience firsthand.  I did warn Nickie that she would not enjoy Venice.  Why, you ask?  The crowds, which are both unbelievable and disturbing.  I cannot imagine living in Venice - I don't know how the locals do it.  And the Italians only have themselves to blame.  Similar to the French, they have a plethora of sites everyone should see.  Unlike the French, Italians are nice to tourists.  Entirely their own fault.

San Marco Sinking?

I don't live near an ocean.  I know about tides, but was puzzled to see raised platforms being erected in San Marco square.  Curious!  Then I noticed water coming out of the storm sewers.  Lots of water.  Definitely not a good sign.  We visited San Marco square during a "high" high tide.  The raised platforms were about a meter in width and could easily handle a few hundred people.  Do recall that I am talking about San Marco square which, incidently, was now a lake.  Thousands of people were trying to move along the raised platforms.  It only took one tourist to stop and take a picture, for everyone to be standing still.

Gondola Rushhour

First game of Marco Polo was played here

Two full days is sufficient to see a good part of Venice, unless you intend to swim all of the canals.  If so, give yourself about 3 weeks.

Glass blowing island of Burano

I guess that I should mention about our flights.  Not wanting to risk another fiasco similar to when we flew to Vancouver with Lynx, who went bankrupt prior to our return flight, we booked with Air Canada.  Guess what?  Air Canada was facing a strike, which would start the day our flight left for Venice!  We hemmed and hawed about booking another flight.  With 5 days until our departure flight, we decided to book with Air Transat and avoid the risk of not getting to Italy.  The day after our flights with Air Transat were confirmed, Air Canada declared the strike had been averted!

Another Italian plus is their transit system.  I love talking to Europeans about the non-existent Canadian transit system.  They shudder at the cost of taking a train from Rome to Venice, which can be as steep as $95 CAD.  I ask them to guess at the price for a train from Toronto to Vancouver.  Yes, it is a much longer trip, but can cost north of $5,000.  Getting from Venice to the Dolomites is tricky.  Reminds me of the punchline for a Rodney Dangerfield joke: "You can't get there from here".  We took 5 trains and a bus.  I like to have a comfortable buffer between flights.  I don't book 30 minute layovers.  So imagine how I felt when I realized that 2 of our train connections were less than 10 minutes each!  Our shortest was a 7 minute gap between trains.  All this in railway stations I had never seen.  As a credit to the Italian train system, none of our trains were late and we had no problems.  We took a train from Venice to Venice (from San Lucia to Mestre), Verona, Bolzano, Fortezza, then Brunico.  Then a bus from Brunico to Pederoa.

Hiking in the Dolomites

A word of caution about town names in the Dolomites.  Over the centuries, the area has been under rule from both Italian and German speaking nations.  I'm hazy on who invaded whom, but a lot of towns have 2 names.  Brunico is also Bruneck.  Bolzano is Bozen.  It can get quite confusing if you are not aware of this!  We stayed at Hotel Pider, in the town of Laval / Wengen / La Valle.  I forgot to mention that some parts of the Dolomites have 3 official languages; Italian, German and Ladin.  If you have not heard of the Ladin language, you are not alone.

Nickie, yelling something about the hills being alive.

Hotel Pider from a distance

Zoom in:  Pider is left of the church

Hotel Pider is a wonderful hotel deep in the Dolomites.  I recommend the half board, which (I think) means they feed you breakfast and supper.  There are hiking trails outside the front door.  Breakfast is quite a nice spread, including scrambled eggs.  Supper was beyond intimidating.  I'm pretty sure the chef at Pider has never heard of Hamburgers.  Every breakfast, we would select that night's supper from a menu.  How can that possibly be intimidating?  Here is the menu for one of our suppers:

Salatbuffet

Grub aus der Kuche

Kurbiscremesuppe mit Gorgonzolatropfen
oder
Penne mit Thunfisch Perltomaten Sauce

Flank Steak vom Rind mit Krauterkruste
oder
Kohlrabi Eintopf

Kartoffelblatter, Auberginen 

Parfait von der Walnuss

Very soon we found out they can provide the menu in English!

I think this is a barn

Hiking in the Dolomites is incredible.  It is one of the most beautiful places on this planet.  It was almost annoying how many times we had to stop and admire the views.  Mind you, the vertical might also have influenced the frequent stops.

Hiking above the clouds

The Dolomites remind me of the Canadian Rockies, in that pictures do them no justice.  There are also impossibly verdant fields, where cows graze.  I think the cows are on some form of Valium.  I would certainly not consider grazing on such steep slopes!

There are many buildings whose purpose at times eluded us.  Is it a barn?  A B&B?  Storage?  Some were obviously built on or in a cliff.  One building of which we had no trouble determining its use was a restaurant, high in the Dolomites.  The view was excellent, the soup amazing and the wine delectable.  There is little reason to order a special bottle of wine in Italy.  The house wines were far better than Ontario reds.  They all tasted great, in part because we had been hiking 3 - 4 hours that morning. 

Wine is better at altitude!

Pider provided us with bus passes.  Although it would have been easy to hike from the hotel every day, we took advantage of the bus passes and hiked from La Villa (aka Stern) and Badia (Abtei).  From Badia, we actually hiked back to hotel Pider.

The Dolomites!

From the Dolomites, it only took 2 buses and 3 trains to reach Verona.  It was a breeze!  Verona also had large crowds.  It boasts a Roman amphitheatre called Arena Di Verona.  Since it predates the Colosseum in Rome, it is rumoured that it was used as a template for the Colosseum.  Verona is also the site for a play called Romeo and Juliet.  It was written by some old guy, possibly Bernard Shaw.  One component of this play is a balcony.  I took a picture of it, even though I couldn't see what the big deal was all about.

Arena Di Verona

Juliet's Balcony

As with all travel, it was time once again to head home.  I developed a tickle in my throat in Verona.  We took a train to Venice for our last night, to make the trip to the airport less complicated.  The next morning, the throat tickle turned nasty.  Perfect timing, getting sick while travelling for 20 hours and crossing 6 time zones.  We are recovering nicely (yup, we were both under the weather).

Gros Morne National Park, Newfoundland

Part of our rather complex travelling schema is to spend more time in Canada during the summer.  We envision short trips, allowing us to get back home before the garden dies from neglect.  Back in 2005, I hiked in the Gros Morne area and memories of the incredible scenery remain with me to this day.  

I should mention that our only air travel hiccup was a 1 hour delay for the flight home (both flights were direct).  Nickie and I rented a car at the airport and a house in Rocky Harbour.  Mike, our landlord was very helpful, especially when the power went out.  I don't think power outages are common in Rocky Harbour, but lightning did strike an electrical pole, causing the first outage.  The next day there was a "planned" outage, probably to correctly repair the damage from the first outage.  Neither caused us much trouble, aside from an issue I had trying to find my pants in the dark, in order to answer the door.  Mike had thoughtfully dropped by to provide us with a flashlight.

Hiking in Heaven

On our way to the top!

For more information on these hikes, click on Gros Morne Hiking.

Baker Brooks Falls

We started with a warm-up hike; a moderate 10K out-and-back trail called Baker Brooks Falls.  The trail notes warn of biting insects, but in late August we encountered none.  Probably a warning for the Spring and early Summer.  The falls were quite beautiful and there was considerable shade along the trail.  One interesting aspect was an "exclosure" (new word for me!) which is a fenced area to keep out moose.  Since the introduction of moose to Newfoundland back in 1904, they have been playing havoc with the flora.  There was a distinct difference between the moose grazing lands and the exclosure.

Go Big or Go Home

Almost at the top of the scramble

Don't look down!

Our next hike was the Gros Morne Mountain Trail.  Although only 17K, be prepared for some exertion!  There is a total of 1,000 meters elevation gain, about half of which is during a scramble.  We are not fast hikers, but fairly constant.  It took us 7.5 hours to complete the trail, which is respectable considering the range is 6 - 8.5 hours.  The scramble takes about 45 - 60 minutes of climbing over rocks and boulders.  It is steep enough that stopping to rest a few times is a good idea.  The top of the mountain boasts some interesting terrain and flora. The views are amazing, displaying geological formations not found in most parts of the world.  This hike is well worth the effort, but bring along bad weather clothes and more water than you usually take for an 8 hour hike.

View from north side of the summit

Western Brook Pond

Several waterfalls into the Western Brook pond

 A day off from hiking was in the cards, so we booked a boat tour on the Western Brook Pond.  I understand that in Newfoundland, "pond" is used to describe even large bodies of water.  The WB Pond is 16K long - a lake in my vocabulary.  It was carved out by glaciers during the last 2 million years (Pleistocene Epoch).  The almost vertical cliffs rise over 600 meters from the water.  Most people have seen photos of the cliffs, but experiencing it in person is something else!  It was unfortunate that it rained for most of the tour.  Bring warm and waterproof clothes unless you really enjoy hypothermia.  I did get a few good photos near the eastern end of the pond.

Mist and rain along the cliffs

The next day we hiked along the Old Mail Road trail near Cow Head.  The only reason we went on this hike was so that I could write about a town called "Cow Head" in my blog.  To be fair, we saw some sand dunes along the trail, which are rare in Newfoundland.  The trail was formerly used by mailmen, as there were no roads in the area until about 1952.  That afternoon was also hiked the Coastal Trail, although we turned back early as the rocks were bruising our feet.

View of the Tablelands

Next up was the Lookout trail, a nice climb up from near the town of Bonne Bay / Woody Point.  We took the ferry from Norris Point (near Rocky Harbour) to Bonne Bay.  As we were about to depart Norris Point, the captain quickly went through the ferry and counted the people.  He then asked us to disembark and get on a bigger ferry.  I wonder if this happens anywhere else in the world?  The lookout provides excellent views of the area and of the Tablelands.  We encountered 2 teenagers playing chess at the top of the mountain.  I would of taken their picture, but was too afraid...

Tablelands

Hiking the Tablelands

The tablelands are a rather bizarre geological feature.  They are supposedly one of only 2 spots in the world where you can stand on mantle rock.  Click above for more information.  Mantle rock is normally found below the earth's crust.  If you were to dig at the rate of 10 meters per day, it would take you about 10 years to reach the mantle.  You would encounter some difficulty as most shovels would melt, requiring considerable time to climb out of the hole and get a new one.

The Tableland trail is quite easy, until it is not.  We chose a rather hot day for this hike, which was one factor in our decision not to climb to the summit.  Another factor was that our knees were not talking to us.  My left knee grumbled something about wanting a day off "or else".  There is an easy well-made trail along the bottom of the tableland.  You are asked to stay on the trail to protect the flora, but If you want, you can also scramble up to the top.  It did not look easy and we only saw a few people doing so.  Most were holding a bottle of Islay scotch.

The rocks don't support vegetation and I think most of the frail plants we saw were growing on dirt blown onto the orange rock.  The formation is incredible as the area has undergone glaciation.  Very cool!

Sideways striations

Well, it was then time to bid adieu to Newfoundland and head back to Ontario.  As mentioned above, our flight was delayed by about an hour.  This landed us at Pearson too late to take a train home to Innisfil (Barrie), so we took a taxi.  To be honest, it was nice to get from the airport to home in only 55 minutes.  That way, we didn't have to take UP (train to Union Station), then GO (train to South Barrie), then a taxi home.

Next is Italy.  We booked with Air Canada and out flight leaves on September 16 and arrives in Venice on September 17.  Yup!  Air Canada pilots are poised to strike on September 17.  Should be fun!

The Great Glen Way

Although I have been to Scotland before, I've heard the weather is nice in April.  To be exact, there is less rain than in most other months.  Let's make this perfectly clear, "less rain" in Scotland does not necessarily translate into "mainly sunny days".  However, we lucked out while walking the Great Glen Way.  We experienced a few brief episodes of drizzle.  The kind of rain where you debate stopping to put on a raincoat, and when you do so, invariably the rain stops.

A few years back, I walked the West Highland Way, a wonderful way to experience the Scottish terrain from Glasgow to Fort William.  The Great Glen Way can be considered a continuation, as it traverses from Fort William to Inverness.

The start of the Great Glen Way

Once again we relied on Macs Adventures, a company centered in Scotland that specializes in adventures worldwide.  Macs set up the hotels, luggage transfer (we walked with a day pack) and provided maps, emergency contact and most important - advice.

The Caledonian Canal

We completed the roughly 120 km GGW in six days.  As an observation, it would have been nice to have a day or two off during the walk.  As we were only averaging 20K per day, it was not overly taxing, but 20K is enough to limit the time available to explore the towns in which we were billeted.

The trek from Fort Williams to Inverness actually follows a fault line, called the Great Glen Fault.  I think I know where the walk obtained its name!  What happened (feel free to ask someone who actually knows about the fault) is that the north eastern part of Scotland was actually in Canada, about 200 million years ago.  I'm guessing there was some sort of disagreement, so what is now north-eastern Scotland gave the rest of Canada the finger, and headed east.  The mid-Atlantic ridge had something to do with the kerfuffle, but I see it as an innocent bystander.

Loch Lochy

Shortly after the year 1800, someone had a rather obtuse idea to put in a canal along the fault line and named it the Caledonian Canal.  The name isn't all that obtuse, but the canal runs from Fort Williams to Inverness, connecting the North Atlantic to the North Sea.  Look at a map and you will quickly realize that in modern times, this doesn't make a lot of sense.  Back in 1800, the powers that be determined it would give Scotland/Great Britain a significant advantage should a hostile navy show up.  I'm hazy on the logic behind this, but to be fair, I should mention there are an incredible number of Scotch whisky distilleries in the area.

Some of the locks

The Great Glen Way proceeds primarily along the canal, locks and lochs.  No, that isn't a typo.  There are a bunch of locks (29) and 3 lakes, which the Scots call lochs.  Most people have heard of Loch Ness, on which many have claimed to see a monster.  Again, look up the distilleries in the area and it all makes sense.

The Great Glen Way starts near the MacDonalds restaurant (I wish I was kidding) in Fort Williams and after a few dekes, heads out of town.  It then follows the canal to Gairlochy, which is at the south end of Loch Lochy.  The Scottish are known for their sense of humour, so it comes as no surprise that they named one of their lakes "lakey"...

The GGW heads into forested land along Loch Lochy and be on the lookout for detours, described as diversions.  There is considerable logging in the area and parts of the trail are re-routed at times.  This avoids have to run very very fast to avoid having a tree dropped on your head.  Loch Lochy comes to an end at Lagan Locks and the GGW again follows the canal.

Nickie taking a picture

After a short bit, the canal ends and you walk along Loch Oich.  I'm not even going to try to pronounce the lake!  Loch Oich is a small lake that ends at the bridge of Oich.  Again there is a longish bit of canal, that ends at Fort Augustus.  The Romans never did make it that far north, so the fort was named after someone else named Augustus - probably a Canadian.  For almost half its length, the GGW then follows Loch Ness .  Along this portion, we overnighted in Invermoriston and Drumnadrochit, before arriving in Inverness.

We stayed 3 nights in Inverness, where we recovered (the last 2 days covered 55 km) and toured the town.  Inverness has some rather large churches and a castle that unfortunately, was closed for repairs.

Ness river in Inverness

Next on our itinerary was a visit to John O'Groats.  This is a small town (yes, it has a distillery) in the far north of Scotland.  We had planned to take a ferry to the Orkney Islands, but were not aware that the ferry schedule is limited in April and early May.  After considerable investigation, we realized that we needed to take a bus, then a ferry, then another bus to get to where we wanted to go on the Orkney Islands.  We would then have 34 minutes and 12 seconds before having to board a bus for the trip back to John O'Groats.  Instead we hiked along the coast of John O'Groats, which had some fascinating striations caused by the latest ice age.

Ice age striations covered in algae

To get from John O'Groats to Fort William, we had to take a taxi (no buses on Sunday!) to Thurso, a train to Inverness, then a bus to Fort WIlliams.  Strangely enough, even though there is a train on Sunday from Thurso to Inverness, there is no train from Inverness to Fort Williams (?)

Nickie claims that I get sick every time we travel.  This is nonsense.  Back in Fort William, we decided to hike Ben Nevis.  I was sick.  We walked to the base of Ben Nevis where I bid Nickie adieu and turned back.  Nickie went on to summit Ben Nevis, which is a considerable challenge.  I had summitted Ben Nevis on 2 previous occasions, so resting was a better option.

Nickie on her way up Ben Nevis

The trip back home was uneventful, which was a bit eerie.  We are getting used to landing in a country just as it declares a state of emergency, or our flights being cancelled since the airline went bankrupt.  In this case, all was calm and boring.

Next trip:  Italy (visit Venice then hike in the Dolomites).

Cheers!