Nessie Hunter

August 1st

 And we were so looking forward to walking around Urquhart castle. We even arrived by 9.30 am, plenty of space in the car park and only one coach parked. This young lady asked us for our ticket, what ticket we enquired. "You have to book, no ticket, no entry!" It didn't matter that we were Historic Houses members, she was adamant they were fully booked. We stared at the almost empty car park and the few folk walking down to the ruins, but nothing we said would make her change her mind. "Come back at 1 pm, and we will let you in!" We were that peeved that we left in a huff, stopped at a lay-by and decided we would see Urquhart Castle but from the opposite bank of Lock Ness.

 Back towards Inverness before we could get onto the road taking us along the B682. This road was narrow with passing places and at the start went through a small village called Dores. A car park and a sign Nessie Hunter appeared, and we remembered many years ago we also travelled this route, and checked out Nessie Hunter. You may remember this on BBC News about a chap called Steve Feltham. He started looking for Nessie in 1991 and, apart from sighting something moving fast across the water in that first year, is still searching for a second sighting. His camper van is still there, and I believe he lives in it, although it looks more like a hut than a camper van, having decked all the outside!

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Continuing along the shore line, many a photo opportunity appeared. A path leading down to the Loch happened to be at a viewing spot. An easy path, not like that rock climb of yesterday! 

The main object of driving this way was to view Urquhart Castle, and sods law said the viewing area would be full. It was, although Ian managed to drive into a short space right at the end. Not ideal because the front of MB stuck out into the road. Suddenly a car pulled away, it happened to be right at the start of the lay-by so keeping everything crossed that there would be a clear reverse back, reversed past at least 10 cars to get to it.

And where are the crowds?

Job done, we continued to Fort Augustus. One more photo stop showed itself when looking across the Loch, noticed the Caledonian Canal entrance.

 Ford Augustus had another of those Revolution washing machines situated by the Jet garage. It was about time we washed a few bits! Wow, Fort Augustus was heaving, I had forgotten about the tourist attraction of the staircase locks, and it was a good job we could park by the machine. While the machine was doing its thing, we headed off to the locks via a gift store. I really wanted a Highland Cow to join the rest of our stuffed dashboard menagerie. Ian named him 'Wee Mctavish' He sits pride of place in the centre.

What was amazing as we sat in MB waiting for the washing to finish was the amount of folk getting phones out and taking photos of the machines. Never have Ian and my undies been photographed so much! Anyway, 70 minutes later and with clothes put away, we left to find an overnight stop. The nearest place was at Laggan Lock, the main car park was full but continuing along a lane we came to an area just wide enough for three vehicles. One of these we claimed, no TV unfortunately, but the internet signal is good, so Olympics can be watched through I Player.

And wildlife