Thursday 22 June 2023. Thursday morning and we are back in the coach and on our way to Crieff for a brief stop to see the memorial to the Black Watch regiment.
This is the view from our front seats on the coach. It's a glorious day and we are looking forward to another day in the Trossachs visiting places we have never seen before.
Wade's Bridge at Aberfeldy over the River Tay dates from 1866-1868. It has four arches of voussoirs (wedge-shaped stones) that take the B846 road. We cross and then turn right as the Black Watch Memorial is on the river bank. There's a small park with putting green and a class of primary age schoolchildren are enjoying its facilities as their school year comes towards an end.
The Black Watch were originally the 42nd (Royal Highland) Regiment of Foot, formed in 1739. In 1881 they were amalgamated with the 73rd (Perthshire) Regiment of Foot, dating from 1780 and at that point the Black Watch Battalion was born. "What's that silver line?" someone asked. "It looks like a lightning rod..." I suggested, "Either that or a personal telephone wire to the statue..."
Then it was back on the bus for the drive to Pitlochry. We passed a small herd of red deer to our left. I saw them but wasn't sitting for the full journey with my phone camera at the ready, so you'll have to imagine them. Antlers and everything...
We came to Pitlochry and I saw a signpost to a salmon ladder on the river down to our left. This is where salmon swimming up the river to breed come to a taller waterfall (or in this case a dam) than they can leap, so a series of pools act as steps that they can make the rise in short jumps.
After getting off the coach we went for a bite of lunch and then walked back to the roadsign, under a railway bridge and found ourselves at the restaurant. The river gurgled its way under the road to our right and stretched off to our left. There were no more indications as to the direction of the salmon ladder so we decided that unless we stumbled across it by accident we would probably miss it. We were right - we missed it... In fact as we got back to the coach park there was another signpost pointing in the opposite direction that we had walked. Why they send cars down that way I have no idea...
We walked back under the bridge to the main road and passed a small park. At the corner of the park and main road was the town's War Memorial.
The town had loads of inviting pubs. It was a very hot day. Ignoring them was a bit like torture, but I am under doctors' orders not to let alcohol pass my lips and probably having it via intravenous drip is probably not a good idea either.
I could have murdered a Guinness too... Miss Franny was very sympathetic and bought me an ice cream cone. As a treat she had some ice cream put into it as well. It still didn't taste like Guinness...
Another Wade's Bridge - this was the old bridge near the hotel, very narrow and now disused for all traffic except pedestrian and replaced by the new Tummel Bridge at it's side. As we rounded a blind corner a BT Open Reach van came flying round far too fast. How he avoided us I'm not sure but he had to reverse back. This was made a little difficult because a split second later a small black sports car did the same and just managed to stop behind him. Mr BT hadn't seen this though so set off backwards at the boggart (fast!)
The sports car driver had very good reflexes I have to say because he had his car in reverse pretty smartish and managed to avoid a collision. Both he and our driver Steve were frantically pipping their horns to try to get the BT van to slow down. All ended well, though we kept a wary eye out for BT vans the following day!
Once back at the hotel we went for a little wander on the lawn down to the loch but there were a few midges about and we thought discretion might be the better part of valour!
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