During our second breakfast we chatted to the Dutch ladies who were also staying at Tigh Bhan (pronounced Tie Van). They had travelled a lot, and really liked London, ladies of taste and distinction. It was raining again, but this time it hardly stopped. So indoor activity was the order of the day, and what better way to start than to go inside of a mountain. Ben Cruachan is a 3,600 foot mountain on the shore of Loch Awe, which has been turned into an awesome pump-storage hydro-electric power station. a natural corrie on the mountain side was dammed and turned into a reservoir. Then tunnels were excavated through the black granite to a massive turbine hall a thousand metres into the mountain. Water from the reservoir is used to turn massive turbines which drive generators making electricity. There is enough water to run for fourteen hours at full power, the water runs into Loch Awe. At night, when electricity is very cheap, the same turbines are used to pump water back up into the reservoir! The main use of the Hollow Mountain is to produce electricity very quickly, it can be switched on in two minutes at times of peak demand. So when there is an interval in a football match and millions of people put the electric kettle on, extra electricity can be produced on demand. The tour took us by mini bus into the power station to show us the generating hall, with its four massive generators sitting above the turbines. This amazing piece of engineering was built between 1959 and 1965 and was opened by the Queen.
Having got into the industrial groove, we went to an old blast furnace next w went to Bonawe Furnace. It's an 18th century blast furnace on the shores of Loch Etive. It used charcoal from the local forests to heat the furnace, and power for the bellows was provided by a waterwheel. Vast amounts of timber were used, two tons of iron needed two tons of charcoal, which is a huge amount of wood.
A few miles down the road we stopped for lunch at the Inverawe Smokehouse, a place that smokes all sort of foodstuffs. It has a great cafe, and we had their chowder for lunch. It was very expensive (£7.95 each) but was undoubtedly the best smoked haddock chowder I have ever, ever eaten. Basically it as smoked haddock cooked in cream, delicious!
The weather was very wet, so we headed south towards our next destination at Gartmore. There were many beautiful lochs and mountains, but the views were often covered by rain and clouds. There are a huge amount of mountains and lochs in Scotland, it really makes the Lake District look small.
Our next AirBnB is in Gartmore, a small 18th century planned village which is basically one street. We ate a good dinner at the only pub, the Black Bull, and then went back to our accommodation at Elgin House. Our hosts Jacky and Paul are both orchestral musicians, very friendly and generous with their malt whisky. 
timharnesstravels 