We made good on our promise and drove back to Braemar. The weather was quite unique-extremely windy, random blankets of blown rain and teasing moments of sun. A double rainbow greeted us upon entry into Ballater. Matt picked up a lovely brown wool hat. Our adventure continued on to Inverness, Fort Augustus, and of course, Loch Ness. No trip up north is complete without an attempt at seeing Nessy; water horses grant wishes if they let you see them, you know! We stopped quickly in Inverness and it was quite like other minor metropolitans-thriving pedestrian centric shopping laden downtown. Some Subway in the car and off we went. Once through Inverness you can tell the North Sea is just stone’s throw away. Inverness sits at the top of Loch Ness so it took no time to drive down the west coast of the Loch and stop at the Loch Ness Exhibition and Information Center. It would seem that any visitor center or learning experience about Loch Ness would be a tourist trap but this place wasn’t particularly so. Yes, the gift shop was about 2000 square feet of chachkis but the educational part was, believe it or not, educational. A group of people were escorted through various rooms that explained, through Disneyland means, the different stories and facts of the Loch Ness hunt. Remembering some of those facts this far past it is proving difficult so we suggest you just visit yourself. However, I do like the idea that the Nessy tale was started by a sighting of a North Sea sturgeon who in the early 1900’s made it’s way, by accident, into the Loch during mating season. Beckie particularly liked the idea about the mirage effects the high wind and atmosphere can have on the wind whipped waves. After taking some opportune photos at the center (see photos) we moved onto to Urquhart Castle for some caching and Scottish rebellion lessons. Urquhart Castle sits on a bluff overlooking Loch Ness and played an active role in the Scottish uprising against the English crown. There are just ruins now but are a magnificent tapestry of regional strife against a mystical legend. We left Urquhart in our rear view mirror and continued down the west coast of Loch Ness with the intent to finish in Fort Augustus. We HAD to do some caching along the way and of particular note we found a cache that was a man made tree fungus. Beautiful! We made the mistake of going off path for another cache through some bracken. Well, don’t do that in the autumn because ticks of all sorts are out in force, we emerged from the trail COVERED in them. It took us 45 minutes of tedious clothes shaking and picking at each other like monkeys to be confident we removed them all.
Fort Augustus is the entry point of the Caledonian Canal into the southern Loch Ness. The town is quite small and quaint. It took a while to find our B&B but we finally did-a nice house in the woods. Love it. Dinner found us traversing through Fort Augustus during sunset; we watched the sun slip behind the five locks and stars ignite in the sky. A lovely and leisurely dinner and off to slumberville—just like me after posting this.
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