22/05/08 - Searching for the Loch Ness Monster.

The developing norm for us in the morning revolve around exploring the
area of our latest 'home'. This morning was no exception, a neat
little track wound off through the trees. However 5 minutes later it
lead down to a river where it was decided not to try and cross. It
was a bit deep and there didn't seem to be any path on the other side.
So back on the road, heading for the southern end of Loch Ness and the
little town of Fort Augustus. Here we observed the Caledonian Canal
in action. If you look at the map of Scotland, and go from Fort
William up to Inverness you will see 3 lochs (lakes) pretty much
splitting the country in two. These lochs being Lochy, Oich and of
course Ness. To complete the split and allow boats to pass through
from one coast to the other, the Caledonian Canal was built in the
early 1800s. At Fort Augustus there are 5 locks situated one after
the other to get boats up (or down) from Loch Ness.
It was then time to become famous and continue searching for the Loch
Ness monster (well that was my (Daniel's) plan anyway). We set off for
a walk above Loch Ness with some very nice views of the lake.
Unfortunately Nessie did not want to join the party and stayed deep
below the surface.
We moved up the north side of Loch Ness to Castle Urquhart. Here we
watched a very cool audio visual about the castle - I'm not going to
tell you why, incase you all one day come to the castle. Just make
sure you stay right to the end of the movie for an awesome effect.
The castle itself is almost better described as a ruin, but was
fantastic to explore the large area over-looking the lake. I am
afraid Nessie still did not complete what would have been the
absolutely perfect photo, and stayed well hidden!!