We left Iona on the 10:10 ferry. To our joy, Tesla waited for us, charged to 355km (a little less than 90%), I didn't want it to be fully charged for more than 24 hours. Katja was worried that she (Tesla is a she for Katja) would be angry with us and wouldn't let us in, but in fact she welcomed us by presenting the door handles. Katja wanted to drive the one-track road back to Craignure. And she did perfectly well!
We arrived in Craignure on time for the earlier ferry and we were again lucky to get boarded. We even were directed to Lane 1 which was reserved for people with a booking for that time, so apparently this trip was not sold out. Around 13:30 we arrived in Oban. After a quick lunch we continued our journey to Fort William.
When we were in Peebles we got an advice to visit Glen Etive - that would be 2 extra hours of driving. We arrived at South Ballachulish and the weather was beautiful, so we decided to do the extra adventure.
After a while we had to turn to a 1-track road, just like on Mull. Soon the road became even narrower, with passing pockets less and less frequent. The scenery was absolutely spectacular but the driving became harder, sometimes we needed to park in a ditch full of dirt to let a car pass. Since our Tesla can’t change its height, it was not really a suitable road for it, but we decided to continue and see where we arrive.
Glen Etive - Skyfall?
After ca. 45 minutes we arrived at “Glen Etive Estate Parking” which was the end of the road. Apparently, a scene from James Bond Skyfall was filmed here. We were at the origin of Loch Etive and had a beautiful view of the Glen (glen means something like ‘a narrow valley’) and the Loch (lake).
Our journey back along the 1-track road had an extra adventure: after 5 minutes we met a group of 2 cars and a motorcycle with a trailer who could reveres. We had to back up a couple of hundred meters and it all was very complicated but finally we managed to pass each other. The rest of the journey was quick since we let a truck pass us which was obviously used to driving on this road - from there it went twice as fast.
Finally in Fort William we connected to a CHAdeMO charger with the ChargeYourCar card (the charger was a little off the marked location) and used the time for buying some cutlery for picnic and having a quick bite at a nearby MacDonald’s. Before you dismiss us as superficial junk food consumers, please note that clan (Mac)Donald is a large and important Scottish clan originating from the Hebrides, which allegedly descends from Somerled, Lord of the Isles, so our visit should be appreciated in this historical context.
Glen Nevis camp site lies next to Ben Nevis, Britain’s tallest mountain. We booked a “pod” here - a wooden contraption with seats which fold out into 2 beds (or 1 double bed), a sink, an electric kettle and a tap. The toilets and showers are in a shared building nearby, in about 70 meters. There is a blue 16A connector which either feeds the pod, or, optionally your Tesla. I have tested the charging - got a stable 12 km/h, so when we went to sleep I connected the car and we will wake up 100% charged. The only downside was that we couldn't turn on the ventilation on the pod so it was a little warm.
