At this point in the trip, we found ourselves leaving the Isle of Skye and heading back onto the mainland. Our destination: Loch Ness. Yep, we were in the mood to hunt for Nessie.
First though, we had to make our way back along the road, off the island via Skye Bridge. Again, even seeing this landscape a second time, for the most part since we were retaking some of the same roads as we did before since there is only one to get onto the island, we were speechless. One could not help but feel at peace here. That is until you hit a construction zone. Yep, just like every other country: it was now construction season. At least in some spots you had just a traffic light and the wait wasn't too long.
Someone actually put down the sun visor today after commenting, "The sun is so
bright". Not something we thought we'd say in Scotland.
Yet another sunny day for us!
Back through the highlands we do go :)
Arrows to help out us tourists
(or to keep the locals safe, lol).
Pep had a sky light :o
On the banks of Loch Ness, we first stop to take a gander at Urquhart Castle. This had to be my favourite castle so far. Although it was pretty much in ruins, the grounds were so expansive that you could just imagine the parties that were held here. There were many different quarters, and in the information we read it was mentioned that due to destruction and being left in ruins for many years, there are parts of the castle that are unknown as to their uses.
Down to the cellar
Keeping the riff raff out ;)
After we had spent some time exploring the castle, we headed to Drumnadrochit, a little village nearby. It was here that after we spent some time walking through the town and making a lovely purchase or two, we got ready for our main day's event: hunting Nessie! The night before, Whitney had booked a Nessie hunting tour with Loch Ness Cruises and so we were excited to see if we could spot this elusive sea creature. Our boat was called the Nessie Hunter and our skipper was none other than the infamous George Edwards. George had grown up around Loch Ness and had been sighting the creature for well on 40 yrs. The deepest recorded part of Loch Ness is named after him, "Edwards Deep" for he was the one to discover and record it. HIs boat was also the one National Geographic climbed aboard when they were in Scotland doing a piece on the Loch Ness Monster. George is a true believer in Nessie and even has photographs to prove it. Whilst we didn't spot her/him/it/them, we did have a fabulous time listening to all his knowledge, partaking in his lively banter, asking him questions, and getting a chance to go boating in a small group setting. I would totally recommend his tour to anyone wanting to head on on Loch Ness to find Nessie.
The sheep weren't too concerned about Nessie.
Perhaps because they are quite far inland.
Drumnadrochit
She's ready to spot a sea creature
The clouds don't look good this way
Skipper George and his first mate
Ok Nessie, where are you?
Found her! ;)
The water is gets extremely deep quickly that you can actually drive this close
to the shore without running aground.
Us with skipper George
Oh no, Nessie escaped!
Whitney said she was a quieter co-pilot than me :(
After our tour, we headed south along Loch Ness to Fort Augustus where we were staying for the night. It was interesting this drive along the lake as it was a forestry area, not an industry I normally would have associated with Scotland. Again it amazed me at all the different landscapes this small country encompassed.
Once we arrived in Fort Augustus, we checked into our hotel, The Lovat then took a stroll through the tiny, tiny town to sightsee and find a place for dinner. We heard from a lot of locals that many of the towns we've been to so far in this trip up in the more northern areas of Scotland are only prospering due to tourism. And it's quite easy to see that unfortunately that would be the case.
We found a nice place to eat called The Boathouse which was situated right on the banks of the south end of Loch Ness. Although many of the places we've eaten at to date haven't been fancy or extravagant, I can easily say that I've had some of the most delicious meals of my life on this trip. And The Boathouse was no exception. Some humus, a yummy pot pie and a croissant completely satisfied me and were a nice send off as we ambled back to the hotel to await travels the next day.
The Lovat.
Yes, they even made jokes themselves about the name.
Eg. "You'll love it at The Lovat" (lol, groan)
Locks on The Caledonian Canal
Connects Loch Ness with the waterway to the south
We were excited to see this.
Weren't sure if it was a.m. or p.m., but found out after 8:30pm that
it was actually a.m., lol.
Loch Ness
No comments:
Post a Comment