Blogs from Fort Augustus, Inverness-shire, Scotland, United Kingdom, Europe - page 2

Geo: 57.1431, -4.68296After a hot Scottish breakfast, we were in the car, departing Pitlochry to the north around 9am. It wasn't the crisp blue skies of yesterday, but still temperate dry conditions. Today would be all about the natural beauty of Scotland. We reached our most northerly point in Scotland at Inverness, and then began a drive along the Great Glen in a Southwesterly direction. The Great Glen starts at Inverness and basically connects a series of lakes, or 'Lochs'. The first of these Lochs was the most famous, Loch Ness. You know why its famous. One of the worlds most famous mythological creatures lives here, the Loch Ness monster. There have been countless blurry videos, photos, apparent sightings and vague descriptions of a giant 'Pelesiosaur' type creature living in the loch. Our mission, to find ... read more

Day 3 We woke to what has been the best hostel breakfast yet, boiled eggs, porridge, muslie and the usual coco pops, cornflakes and toast, but with the added spreads of peanut butter, honey and the usual jam. I know this sounds boring to those of you back home but when you get the usual for weeks on end, eggs sound soooo amazing. It is the little things that make all the difference to make you feel more comfortable and more at home. Nick, Matthew and I decided to wander into town and see if we could find the walking trail which followed Loch Ness. After one dead end, a private property sign and a forray into a local neigbourhood's 21st party by mistake, we decided to instead try the canal walk. This proved much more ... read more

The Long Journey to South Africa Now that we have moved to the beautiful Highlands of Scotland it is no longer a quick hour or two drive up the motorway to Heathrow, check in, and off you go. This year, apart from having to work out how to get from Fort Augustus to Heathrow, we also had to worry about the weather. Anyway, after a week of pretty bad (or good depending on whether you like or want it) weather with plenty of snow and ice and closed roads and airports the snow all suddenly disappeared to allow us to get to Glasgow. This was via the only bus on a Sunday from Fort Augustus (they've just put a bus stop outside our neighbour's house, how considerate) to Inverness then catch the bus to Perth, change ... read more

Geo: 57.1431, -4.68296We began this morning at 5:45 thanks to our trusty alarm clock, Rich. After getting ourselves in order, it was off to another Scottish breakfast at Mac Donald's. (Ahem.) Stand E was only a brief walk away and while waiting for our bus we explored another really old cemetery. We saw graves of people who were buried before America declared independence. The "newest" monument in the cemetery was a statue of Abraham Lincoln. It was strange.Upon boarding the bus, we met Bill, an animated and well-versed Scotsman (kilt included), who made our day a wonderful one. We headed north from Edinburgh into the Highlands and completely trumped the Friday the 13th garbage by enjoying a SUNNY day. From a distance, we passed Stirling Castle, where William Wallace turned back the English by destroying a ... read more