Loch Ness
In October 2009 Sarah took a few days off and we headed out to Loch Ness in search of the monster, we first headed North - West toward inverness, stopping to grab a shot of Corgarff Castle along the way.
we took a second break to stretch our legs at a picturesque footbridge over the river in what looked like and excellent fishing spot.
From Inverness we took the little used B852 down the East side of Loch Ness where we stopped again at the 'Falls of Foyers' which were raging owing to the heavy showers of the previous days (and today)
showery days aren't all bad though, this rainbow lands perfectly in Loch Ness
whilst in America we had become accustomed to setting off without booking accommodation and just finding some on arrival at our destination, this could have been a bad mistake here as it turned out the Loch Ness marathon was on and everywhere we tried was fully booked. Fortunately at a B&B we tried the lady said she knew a woman who only did very occasional B&B down by the loch. She called the lady up and got us a room, when we arrived we couldn't believe our luck, the cottage (white building in the trees) looked directly out onto the loch.
in the morning after a great breakfast we thanked the lady and set off toward the town of Fort Augustus stopping occasionally to take in the scenery.
whilst driving alongside the loch we were commenting on the lack of traffic and how great it was to have the place to ourselves, stopping to take photos as we wished. It was only when a local cop told us the road was closed for the marathon that we realised why....ooops.
He did let us carry on though after understanding where we had come from and radioed the start line to wait for us to clear, it was a strange sensation driving toward hundreds of people waiting to set off on a marathon with buses, cars, photographers and TV all waiting for us to get clear and looking at us quizzically as we blew through......we didn't stop for photo's there, but here is a nice shot I grabbed before the cop told us about the road.
He did let us carry on though after understanding where we had come from and radioed the start line to wait for us to clear, it was a strange sensation driving toward hundreds of people waiting to set off on a marathon with buses, cars, photographers and TV all waiting for us to get clear and looking at us quizzically as we blew through......we didn't stop for photo's there, but here is a nice shot I grabbed before the cop told us about the road.
We kept going through to Fort Augustus which is a beautiful little town at the Southern tip of Loch Ness. We stopped and walked around the place and along the Caledonian Canal, we even found Nessie along the way. (click small pics for larger)
from Fort Augustus we circled the loch to the West in order to visit Urquhart Castle situated on the banks of the loch along the western shore, again we stopped along the way for photo opportunities.
from the entrance road the castle looks little more than a wall and a replica Trebuchet when in fact there is much more castle to see than it first appears and a good visitor centre guarding the walkway to the ruin.
the journey home through the Cairngorm National Park was a stunning as ever providing 'archetypal' scenic Scotland shots along the way. So we didn't get to see the real monster (who we all know exists) but from the window in the loch-side B&B as darkness fell across the water and moonlight flickered through the low cloud, those wisps of mist drifting in and out of sight left us thinking.... if we just look for another 5 minutes..........maybe then.........