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Herb Riddle / Photos

The 'Rest and be Thankful' Pass.

The A83 is quite a beautiful road going all the way from Talbet to Campbeltown for almost 100miles. It is accompanied by lochs, mountains and sea but it also has quite an infamous section that could be described as 'challenging'. I am stood on the ‘resting place’ of ‘The Rest and be Thankful’ pass, looking down the big glen towards Arrochar. We can see the road we had just come up with the traffic on the left. The traffic is actually moving in ‘convoys’ past very dangerous new workings trying to repair two giant landslides that brought thousands of tons of mountain slide down through the fragile road. The road has been closed for long periods recently with no other suitable alternative nearby so creating a very long detour of 59 miles. Fortunately for us, it was open again for our journey.

See PiP for close-up of road.

More info: www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-53922077

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18 comments

Rosalyn Hilborne said:

The cars show the immense scale of the landscape Herb! Is the Rest and be Thankful a pub? There is one on Exmoor. Thank goodness you didn't have to take the detour!
A fabulous shot Herb. Cheers, Rosa.
23 months ago

Herb Riddle replied to Rosalyn Hilborne:

Haha, there are many a pub with that name Rosa. No this part of the A83 road (Pass) has that name. In actual fact, this was a real detour already for us, as we had booked ferries via Ardrossan to the Isle of Arran and then onto Kintyre via Lochranza (a big shortcut). These were cancelled due to the ship breaking down and Spring tides, so we had a 95m detour via Glasgow and Loch Lomond and then onto the A83. This required us to spend an extra night at Tarbet as the total 360+ miles to our cottage destination then was too much for us to do in one day. -If this would have been closed too then it would have meant an extra 59miles on top of all that. To say we had some travel worries, was an understatement :)

Keep safe. Herb
23 months ago

Jaap van 't Veen said:

Wonderful and impressive landscape image !!
23 months ago ( translate )

Colin Ashcroft said:

What a shame about the Arran ferries - we had read about that problem. We had been looking at weeks on Arran for last week but didn’t find anything suitable so we avoided the worry of will we get a ferry or not.

For the record here is my Rest and Be Thankful roadworks photo from 2010
www.ipernity.com/doc/vitalsparks/34529929
Looks like one of the same areas affected this time.
23 months ago

Herb Riddle replied to Colin Ashcroft:

Blimey Colin, you have put up an extensive collection of that Ben Donich path on here. Some great views of this same stretch of road. Yes, this pass has had troubles for some years now. I hear tell of a building of an entirely new road instead of this but... We wondered about a night on Arran because of the uncertainty of the ferries but could not find any vacancies due to people having been marooned on Arran for days waiting for ferries to get off.

Will look at leisure at your vast A83 collection. Keep safe. Herb
23 months ago

Keith Burton said:

It seems you've had some "exciting" travel experiences Herb.............and driven many more miles than you expected. Glad you survived it all :-)

These are cracking photos, which really show the extent of the landslide and the resulting traffic chaos, especially the PiP.

An interesting link too!
23 months ago

Herb Riddle replied to Keith Burton:

Thanks Keith. Yes, we ask ourselves sometimes why we put ourselves through all the worry and tribulations of such trips. (We have another exciting similar trip soon!!!) Yet we survived OK having lost some hours and cash but hey, that what holidays are about.

Glad you liked the photos and you peeked at the link too.

Cheers. Herb
23 months ago

Colin Ashcroft replied to Herb Riddle:

You make me feel guilty about my lack of editing and annotations but hope some are still of interest.
23 months ago

Keith Burton replied to Herb Riddle:

Ha, ha...........you've gotta do it while you can Herb..!!

I think our days of extensive walking are over now, but we still do what we can to get out and about. Jackie walks with a stick now (arthritis) so country paths etc are difficult for her.
23 months ago

Herb Riddle replied to Keith Burton:

Sorry to hear that your big walks are probably over (as a pair at least). I think then you will be like us, doing what we can, whilst we can and then thinking of a possible future with lots of holiday memories only. Thank goodness for our photographic hobby (and in our case video) archives.

Take care. Herb
23 months ago

J.Garcia said:

A dazzling valley!
But not to make with so much traffic!
Traffic lanes under repair ... traffic jams, always!
Thanks also for interesting informations, Herb
23 months ago

Herb Riddle replied to J.Garcia:

This is the main route across country to the south west coastal Islands and peninsulas Judite and so is very important. As you imply though, most roads to us nowadays seem to be full and under repair! Such is life in this age. - Glad you liked this view and info.

Best wishes. Herb
23 months ago

TOZ said:

Hi Herb it's a great road it's a long time ago that we was up that way but you managed to get thare thare's nothing like Scotland Herb.
Best Gordon
23 months ago

Herb Riddle replied to TOZ:

As you sat Gordon -thar is nothing quite like Scotland. In spite of the road works and heavy rain it was still a good drive. The last 24 miles almost completely on our own. More shots to come.

Regards. Herb
23 months ago

J. Gafarot said:

Great place, great picture.
Thank you for the Note.
23 months ago
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