10 June 2018 - Drumnadrochit

Today was a sight seeing day.

Whilst we were driving to Fort Augustus I spotted a red squirrel. He was a naughty squirrel as he hadn’t asked his mummy to help him cross the road and was nearly squished by a van.  I put it down to the bad influence of Willie Weasel. (For those born after 1970, look it up). 

We arrived in FA and managed to park in the main car park. We had a wander around the locks of the Caledonian Canal watching a group of boats start their descent into Loch Ness. This entire day was serenaded by a fully costumed bagpipe player, and accompanied by many, many coach tours.

We got our tickets for the next sailing of the boat trip and went for a 50 minute trip up the loch and back. After listening to the commentary about the monster and not seeing it herself, the YCM decided that the picture she had seen was an arm. It didn’t dampen her enthusiasm for Nessie, though, and we have a lovely postcard of her various incarnations. We did, however, see a goat. It was interesting to hear what Nessie probably is (a massive sturgeon) and see the sonar underneath the boat.

We returned to shore. The road was opened up to let some tall masted boats into the lock, several were roundly berated by the bridge captain (?) for not going quickly enough. To see an entire road swinging round was impressive. We sought some lunch. A sandwich from Londis was the only thing that came without chips. We sat near the locks and ate whilst MLW read to us from a James Herriot book that she’d bought from a second hand book stall. Turns out that the books are as funny as both myself and MLW had remembered the TV series all creatures great and small.

After lunch we went back up the road to Invermoriston where there are a number of waterfalls to look at. YCM enjoyed pretending to be a troll under the bridge, where there was a tunnel to pop through, and climbing up and down the walls. The waterfalls walk also went through the woods where the trees were covered in fluffy lichen. I recount this in theory, I was in the car. I did get a sample of lichen thrust at me by the YCM, so that much is true at least.

We returned back to the campsite whilst MLW read more from the book.  I then started cooking dinner.

After dinner we proceeded to have timed running heats. I think I need to start training as I came second. The horses have been bidden goodnight and we’ve all had showers tonight as tomorrow we’re off elsewhere...