Inverness (again) and More

After another pre 8AM start we picked up our daughter and headed north to the Inverness Airport to drop her off for her flight to London. Towards the end of Loch Ness we finished up following a slow beer lorry (truck), and I got in one of my rare overtakes. It appears that no one else managed to pass the lorry as there were no cars behind us for many miles. Then heading in the opposite direction we saw a number of police cars and ambulances speeding down with blue lights and sirens going. Hopefully this wasn’t as the result of some someone trying an unsuccessful overtake.

On our return through Inverness we stopped to do our first hoarding of British Chocolate event at the local supermarket. We usually return home with a few pounds of chocolate and British biscuits (cookies) that we can’t get in Canada!

Miraculously, a craft store also appeared on our route. more “stuff” was bought!

Rather than take the main road back which runs on the west side of Loch Ness, we opted to take the smaller road on the east side. Although reasonably well maintained, this road is single track with passing places in many spots. Interesting driving

As well as the daffodils that are all over the place here, they grow wild, we found some primroses,

and some rhododendrons

In addition to plant life we spotted some Highland Coo’s (Highland Cows)

At places along the road we were quite high above Loch Ness, in the view below the Loch is in the background.

We continued down to the southern end of the Loch stopping along the way for lunch.

Our next stop was Fort Augustus, the road we were on was quite high again at this point and we looked down on the town. In the foreground is the Abbey where some of Lyn’s family went to school.

We then joined up with the road from the other side at Fort Augustus. Here we caught our only sighting of the Loch Ness Monster (Nessie)

We also saw a small cruise boat transiting the locks of the Caledonian Canal. This boat was originally built in Ireland as a fishing vessel and then converted to a small cruise boat that travels around the inland waterways and the Scottish Islands.

In Fort Augustus the Caledonian Canal the River Ness run alongside each other.

From Fort Augustus we headed back to Spean Bridge. We spent a quite evening with Lyn’s brother Robert in his Chalet on the River.

UPDATE:

There was indeed an accident right behind us that closed the road in both directions for 2.5 hours. Two people injured and 1 man charged. We were lucky a) not to be involved and b) not to have been delayed, as this would have meant another missed flight for our daughter!!