Brae Roy

There was the short walk over the fence first of all to comply with Lucy’s modest exercise requirements. That was fine. Caley needed his proper walk. Brae Roy is a long drive even from Roy Bridge; may be 25 minutes in the car to get to the end of the Glen Roy public road.
Caley and I have been here recently on a day of really heavy rain earlier in the holiday period but it holds a huge attraction for me and I persuaded Mrs Cakes it would be nice this afternoon. As we drove past the tourist view point in the Glen the valley became illuminated in panels of soft winter sun light and it improved during our walk. We went as far as the Falls of Roy before turning back. It was cool, dry and bright and there was that low sun that gives a quality you only really get at this time of year. The sun ducked behind the hills to the south; and while it was still very pleasant, the real show was over for the day.
Mrs Cakes’ Mum was coming back up north to the Fort this evening and I was lined up to collect her.
There has been another tragic traffic accident on the A82 –late morning- between Spean Bridge and Fort William and Facebook comments suggest there may have been loss of life. A common theme to all A82 RTAs is the shortage of information to affected travellers. Today was more of the same. There were no signs at key junctions to divert traffic, no visible police presence and traffic was allowed to drive right up to the accident spot and join a queue in which no one knew what was happening. I had assumed that if being permitted to drive right up to the scene then there must be at least single lane passage. Like others I waited about twenty minutes and then did a three point turn. The detour is along the single track Gairlochy – Banavie road, a route entirely unsuitable for trunk road traffic volumes. Previous overloading of this road in similar circumstances has led to secondary accidents usually when someone has put their car in a ditch when meeting an oncoming vehicle.
A political rant perhaps; we know the A82 is a dangerous road. There appears little political motivation to do anything about it so these awful accidents will continue to happen. As I understand it much of the road closure time is taken up with mobilisation of resources which are based too far away. It is ridiculous that these delays can actually contribute to other accidents because the alternatives are no more than farm lanes with bitmac.
I finally collected Mrs Cakes’ Mum who had been waiting a while. Sod’s law the bus was right on time tonight. On return to home the A82 was clear.