Compass Buster #8: Loch Ness and Fort Augustus

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A free day! It was our driver's rest day, so we would not be on the move today. Haggis had given us a leaflet with activities on it earlier in the trip and we could pick some if we wished or just do our own thing. I had decided sod the cost, who knows if I will ever be back here and plumped for two of the activities: the rib boat trip up to Urquhart Castle and canoeing.

Breakfast was included at the hostel, so I helped myself to some of that. It was pretty good; cereals, toast, baked beans, hard boiled eggs and spreads. I think there was tea and coffee too. I'm glad for once that I didn't stuff myself as the boat trip might make me a little sea sick. We headed down into town and found the rib boat place. First things first, we had to be kitted out in special clothing to protect us from the wind and water. Even though it is summer, we would be going so fast, we would feel the cold. We were given these giant padded all in one suits to wear, kind of like a giant ski suit. It looked funny with my flip flops. After plenty of group selfies, we headed to our boat. There were a few options for the rib boat trips and we had picked the 90 minute tour. We were given a safety briefing and then piled onto the boat. I can't remember if it was just our group on the boat or if there were some randoms, too. There was another boat going out at the same time, that was doing the three hour trip, they would go all the way to the other end of Loch Ness.

I loved the rib trip, it was so much fun. We sped off cruising up Loch Ness. The skipper was a proper gnarly looking dude, I bet he had a few good stories to tell about his life. We seemed to bounce a long the surface of the loch. We messed about on the water for a bit, going fast and veering to one side and then the other. Good job no one fell out. We also made doughnuts in the water with the boat going round in circles. These made these cool wave formations on the surface of the water, that looked like they could have been Nessie's humps. We headed over to one side of the loch and we got to spot some feral mountain goats. We were told the story behind them, but I have forgotten it now. I think they were introduced to the area from somewhere else and the ones that are there today are descendants from the originals. From there we sped over to the other side of the loch, so that we could view Urquhart Castle. The guides are right, you definitely get the best view of the caste from the water. The rib boat let us get pretty close to the castle. We also spotted some of the others from our group who had taken the bus to the castle. We were shouting and waving at them, but I don't think they recognised us in our new get up. We had fun making some doughnuts in front of the castle, hoping one of the visitors would think it was Nessie. From there we sped back to the starting point, safe to say my hair was a mess from all the wind.

After the rib trip, we decided to stay in town. It was a gloriously sunny day. We have been having such good luck with the weather the past few days, it is bound to run out soon. We were getting hungry, so looked for somewhere to get some food. We found a fish and chip shop and all ordered from there. Fish and chips, and a can of Irn Bru were just what I needed. I definitely haven't eaten enough fish and chips so far whilst being back in Britain. I really should eat it for every meal so that I am sick of it by the time I am ready to leave for Asia again. We sat by the canal and watched the boats slowly go past. There were a lot of locks that needed opening and closing. You wouldn't be able to get very far if you were in a hurry.

We headed to a different spot on Loch Ness to meet up with our canoeing guide. To be honest, he seemed a bit out of it, dazed and confused. There were only about 8 or 10 of us, so it's not like he was dealing with a million people. We got ourselves paired up, hopped in a canoe and were off. I had expected it to be quite leisurely, however our canoe was miles behind the others and we kept going off in the wrong direction. I was totally blaming my canoe mate in my head, but later found out that she had done some rowing, so it was probably my fault. We canoed out quite far and admired the scenery. It was so peaceful, floating along on the loch, a totally different experience when compared with being on the rib boat. We canoed to a little island and had a look at some boats that were moored and one or two that were sinking. I wish I'd had my camera with me, I think we should have been informed that the guy had dry bags for us to store our stuff in, to take on the canoe. When we came back to shore, we were allowed to head a little up the river to the bridge, it was nice to see that part with the houses along the banks, very pretty.

After the canoeing we headed back to the hostel. Some of the others were there, chilling in the sunshine on lawn so we joined them. It was nice to relax for a bit. I was enjoying not spending the day on the bus for a change. Since I hadn't taken my camera on the activities I had done (I really wish I had, as they would have been totally safe from the water), I headed back into town with my camera to get some photos of the Loch and the village. There were quite a few tourists getting photos by the sign at the loch. Our guides had told us that to do the day trip from Edinburgh is a bit of a waste of time. It is something like a 12 hour day, predominantly filled with driving and not very long spent at Loch Ness. I still can't get over how huge the loch is, it just stretches on and on. It is really pretty and Fort Augustus would be a gorgeous place to live, if you don't mind a million tourists and being a bit isolated. After our walk down to the loch we wandered to the end of town and then walked back looking through the shops. We also saw the ice cream van from last night, so we decided to treat ourselves to another one, well we are on our holidays.

I had opted to have dinner at Morag's Lodge again and so had most of the people on our bus tour. I can't remember what all the choices were for the evening meal, but I was gutted that there wasn't any Chaggis. I had chosen the lasagne, which was okay, it was a bit dry and could have done with more meat filling. It wasn't a patch on the Chaggis. We headed into the bar after dinner, it was a much more chill night than the one before, we had some beers, watched more of the Olympics on the TV and played that charade game with the ipad on your head, loads of fun.

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Photos

Loch Ness
Fort Augustus

Loch Ness
Fort Augustus

Loch Ness
Fort Augustus

Loch Ness
Fort Augustus

Loch Ness
Fort Augustus

Loch Ness
Fort Augustus

Loch Ness
Fort Augustus