Bradys B&B Drumnadrochit

... take a little detour to Loch Ness and see if I can't see anything... look carefully :P Again, not lit the best, so... that's my excuse!



I checked in at the hostel, but couldn't get wi-fi so wandered into town with my comp and ended up having dinner ...

... and surrounding mountains. Evidently the area we went through today is consistently voted one of the top 10 drives in the UK.

Our first major stop was Eilean Donal castle which overlooks 3 Lochs. You may recognise it as being the backdrop for movies such as Highlander, James Bond - the World is Not Enough and most recently Maid of Honour (Mcdreamy chick flick). It was blown to smithereens in the 1700s and was painstakingly rebuilt in the early 20th century.

The back ...

... merriment and band playing.
Todays meals have consisted of Haggis Sausage Roll for lunch and baked potato with haggis mince for dinner! Mince has come a long way n the past few years - due to EU regulations they have to put some form of normal meat in it, although there is still bit of heart, kidney and liver poking out! Very tasty though, might have to have Haggis Curry one night when we get home!

To the Isle of Sky tomorrow

XO

... the path which turned in to a bit of a scramble and started to get very steep and slippery so we decided it was not worth risking a slip as the drop was quite significant and we would have probably broken a few bones, and made a hasty retreat.

Walking back from the loch to the car, which was about 7 miles we were startled by the passing of a fighter jet through the glen at almost ground level, leaving us with our ...

Today was a bit of a washout, in two ways actually. First, I didn't get to bed until 05:45 as I was up in the bar drinking until very late (or early, you could say). Secondly, I was woken up to a wet foot as water was pouring through the ceiling through the smoke detector and onto the end of my bed. I quickly got dressed and went down to reception and they found that someone upstairs had left a tap running and the plug in...whoops!

Aviemore, Scotland, United Kingdom peterward

... section and with added confidence, only to come off the bike
on a really easy section early on. I had a quick look at the bike and I noticed that the rear brake was getting stuck and not working properly, therefore the front locked up on a downhill section and sent me over the handle bars.

I finished the red route and stopped at the cafe for a jacket potato and a hot chocolate ...

... up to the room and bagged the double bed and then went into town for a walk around. Took a few pictures of Loch Ness and some of the town. Not much going on here, just a few shops for the tourists. Back to the hostel for a drink and to use the PC's so that I can upload some photos (which you may have noticed already!). Not sure what to do tomorrow???

... these items was a large bit of what looked like white rock it was about the size of a small loaf of bread. They used to use this just as a door stop but a couple of years a go they had a guest who happen to be a paleontologist. He couldn't believe it and looked at the owners in disbelief, "Do you know your using a mammoth's tooth as a door-stop?". Yep you read it right, it turned out this "rock" that they had found in the garden and was using as a door stop was in ...

... shot straight up my ankles with each step - we're talking seriously tenderized patooties! Have I whinged enough or should I carry on for another paragraph? Hee hee... I arrived in Lewiston at about 2:40 PM so I'd managed to cover the 14 miles in decent time and I limped into Drumnadrochit and found a lovely cafe in which to collapse. I purchased a pint of organic lager, a diet coke and a bar of milk chocolate here - a ...

... a recent accident". This was typical of our day so far. The gondola's Promotions Manager came out to apologise personally after finding out we were directed there by the local tourist board who should have known it was closed. She told us that earlier in the week a gondola had fallen from the wire and injured the occupants inside and obviously they now had to have a big investigation before they could operate again. You cant really be upset about that kind of thing ...