Bridge 13 - Neptune's Staircase, Fortwilliam

'Neptune's Staircase' is a couple of miles west of Fortwilliam and is a series of eight locks on the Caledonian Canal. They were built in the early 1800s in order to get the canal up a height of 19.5 metres, though they were yards, feet and inches then.  Thomas Telford had a hand in the planning which you can tell by the elegance of them - a feature that I failed to capture with my camera.

I promised Craig a tune here.

The rain in Fortwilliam is a particularly wet variety and I got soaked just cycling from my sub-standard B&B to my morning meeting.  I couldn't  contemplate spending an hour or so in that rain and then sitting on a cold train for 5 hours, so I sat and looked at the rain for a long time.  It cleared a bit in the afternoon so, spurred on by Linda Campbell's £50.00 dare, I set off.  The weather cleared nicely for my jaunt, returning to grizzly normal once I was safely back under shelter.

I cycled across each of the eight locks up the canal and then back down again.  It was a lovely interlude, even if I had to scramble a support team from passing holiday-makers.  The best support came from a woman who is currently artist-in-residence in Glen Nevis - I think her name is Tracey Warr but I will find out and correct this if not.  She has made a tree-house in the forest and is currently making nests.  Based on an email exchange with Craig, who told me about this lovely place in the first instance, I was practising my tune (Farquhar and Hettie's Waltz), marvelling that there was no-one to hear me, when I realised that she was filming me!  Aaargh! 

After making a complete eejit of myself, I sat and had a lovely cup of tea outside a shop called 'Caledonian Bears', which I initially thought must be a football team, but it makes and sells bears made from lovely tweed and such-like.  As I sipped my earl grey tea by the 'staircase'  the Jacobite Steam Train chugged its way past - that was all very magical, especially as the sun was shining by then.