Gap Year 2013 Jul-Sep: Boston, Eastern Canada and United Kingdom: Tue 20 Aug

Today Ness... As in Loch, River (or Firth) and Inver.

After yet another cooked Scottish breakfast with our lovely hosts at the Uralla B&B, we went touring today. Loch Ness and monster spotting was on the agenda.

We decided on a clockwise route around Loch Ness so went southwest on a variety of roads including single lane roads (to cover both directions). Along the way, some very beautiful Scottish highland landscape and we stopped somwhere for some fresh air and photos...seemed to be in the middle of nowhere...

The purple heather and green grass contrasted beautifully with grey clouds and hills. And of course it was a little "breezy".

Friends...

We continued south and suddenly after having seen next to nobody for a while, there were a number of cars parked up on a ridge. We stopped being the curious creatures that we are. A board told us what was around us...

And this is what we saw... The lake is called Loch Knockie.

The landscape just made you want to go out there and hike it. Very fresh winds accompanied the vista of course.

The road back from where we came.

We moved on and reached Fort Augustus at the southern end of Loch Ness. A bit touristy, but with locks and great views, who could blame the punters...?

Yep, this is the area's favourite celebrity...Nessie!

Some lock photos to follow as we were fascinated by the comings and goings and in particular this very long and narrow cruise boat to the left called Ros Crana. It seemed to be fully maneuvered through the locks by two people only, one doing the ropes and one controlling the vessel. And yes, it looked really good inside too.

Ros Crana and the lock from the other side.

We watched the action for a while while enjoying a takeaway cuppa.

Anything for a quid in Scotland it seems. This guy was all dressed up with a mo to complement the period outfit. The wheel in front of him was what was used to open and close the locks before they became automated. You put pieces of wood or similar inside the holes and used muscle power to move around its axis.

Next to the locks is the car bridge which had to be opened to let the taller vessels through. It opened in a horizontal fashion along a semi circular rail. Very cool.

Self portrait in front of the opened car bridge.

And Ros Crana is on its way towards the Loch Ness that you can see in the background.

In the mean time, we found the "Great Glen Way" which is about moving yourself through the locks and lochs from Fort William and Inverness by either hiking, cycling or boating. The hiking distance is about 73 miles or 117 km.

The sign posts... Hans was keen... Again...

After our ogling of the locks and its inhabitants, we had to walk down to Loch Ness itself. Here is Di on her way...

On the southern side is an old abbey, in use until 1999 when it got transformed into upmarket hotel accommodation.

This caught our eyes. Now we know what kind of legislation is passed inside the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh that we visited a week ago. "Dog fouling (Scotland) Act 2003". We were sure that was a huge step forward for the Scottish population...

Down by the Loch Ness, Hans is on the outlook for...

...Hey, what's that? Something moving down there. Is it...?

Loch Ness is very long (about 37 miles) and narrow but much of it is untouched. It was beautiful. Di tried to get in on the praise...

Hans dangling fingers to see if he could get a bite but decided it was probably too cold even for monsters.

Even jet boating is available on Loch Ness - perhaps they think speed will help "catch" Nessie. Round her up, perhaps...?

We heard a range of languages while at Fort Augustus and we could see a lot of right hand drive cars - so this white sign at the end of the carpark made a lot of sense.

Urquhart Castle is a known "spotting location" for Nessie. After we left Fort Augustus and drove north to there around lunchtime it was packed. The car park was totally full and with a cost of £7.50 each even if we would get a parking, we thought we would take our chances and spot Nessie elsewhere.

Sure enough, just up the road was a pull out space for cars, with a nice view back to Urquhart Castle ruins.

Di tried some Nessie spotting...but no luck.

As it was 1pm we stopped at a roadside picnic area to eat our remaining Arbroath Smokie (Haddock) with some bread and mayo. Yummy. A French family was there already and soon we were joined by two Italian boys as well. Clearly we were not the only ones who could not maneuver that parking maze.

The drive around Loch Ness had been lovely and we then decided to visit Inverness on River Ness. We found parking next to the bus station and took a wander down to the River.

The River Ness is very shallow but they had still put this nice, bouncy suspension bridge across it for pedestrians. Hans testing the "swing-ability factor" with some jumps. Very good. Di was just a little tiny bit worried.

Looking down the river Ness and back towards the suspension bridge.

Inverness has a castle that reminded Di of Windsor. We wanted to see the town, not the inside of a castle so continued to explore the old town.

Inverness seemed fine by us. We can't rave about it like Edinburgh or St. Andrews but it seems to be fairly relaxed and nice enough. We had a break for a coffee at Costa (a chain here) and did a small shop at PoundLand (the travellers' friend) then headed home, arriving back at our Uralla B&B around 5pm to do some blogging in the lounge area with a cup of tea and chatting with the owner.

Heading out to dinner around 6.30pm we took a few photos of Forres High Street.

Back to our pub from last night, Carlton Hotel, which serves dinner on Tuesday to Sunday nights.

The Carlton Hotel menu was simple and nearly all meals were under £10. We were satisfied with our meals (chicken curry for Hans that tasted like curry this time and pasta bake for Di). We felt very relaxed with our meals and drinks and noticed that the locals were doing the same - mostly working blokes - eating dinner, drinking and watching football news.

Di was again the only female customer but who cares. Hans note: I think that Di liked it...