Hotel Duke Of Gordon Kingussie

... a handful of photos on the way up - the weather didn't do it justice, and typically there was nowhere to stop off the main road whenever I wanted to take photos... so it's fair to say I bypassed quite a bit. Nonetheless, my favourite (non-mist shrouded) bit of the ...

... of the afternoon was spent driving around the island looking at the fanstastic scenery, including the kilt cliffs, which are related to the giants causeway back in Ireland - evidently there are two sides to every story - the Scottish side involves the Irish giant running away (of course!) in fear, due to the enormous size of the kilt that the Scottish giant had flung over the rocks.

Then to the Sligachan area - a rather impressive mountain lives there, on which there is a ...

Hey guys!

Well today opened, cold, rainy and wet - guess all the sunny weather is well and truly behind us. Onto the bus we got, and before long we were all the stome pretty waterfalls set in beautiful forest which are all the colours of the rainbow at the moment. At the falls is minigolf, an adventure playground and a mini harrods in the tea house, complete with wax Mohammed Al-Fayed! Random

Lunch was spent in Inverness, a large city ...

... in our ears. Where was the camera when you needed it (yes, in my rucksack!). The jet was gone within seconds and I had no time at all to get the camera out of my bag.

We got back to the hostel, get showered (separately!) and then headed out to the local fish and chip shop for dinner and then to the pub next door to the hostel for a pint!

Can't get internet here tonight so I will have to upload some pictures later.

... the time I got everything sorted and left the hostel it was around midday so I decided to head over to Aviemore via Loch Ness for a few pictures, first stopping at Foyers Falls and then a few places along Loch Ness south shore.

I arrived at Aviemore at around 15:00 and checked in to the Bunk House, got my room sorted and then went for a walk around the town, stopping at Tescos for some food for dinner. Yep, pasta and chicken again!

... 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 ...

... Augustus from Inverness I intended to go the quieter route on the north shore, but somehow coming out of Inverness I must have taken the wrong turning as I ended on the busier south shore route. I guess I will just have to go back that way tomorrow.

Got over to Fort Augustus at around 15:00 today, booked into an independent hostel Morags Lodge ...

... wee dram” of their 10-yr-old Scotch (at 11am!) Then we walked into the distillery room itself and the smell of malting barley was just amazing! So strong! They buy their barley from farmers right around the village of Pitlochry. There are only three ingredients to the whiskey they make – barley, yeast, and water. The guide started the tour by saying “Please no flash photography” after which one of our fellow tourists IMMEDIATELY took a flash photograph ...

... sun was setting we drove around a corner and there standing majestically in a clearing was a Scottish tower castle built in 1460, our home for the next couple of nights. The bloke that was running the castle thought that we weren't arriving that night that we had just got lost somewhere so it took us about 30min before we could get inside. But one we were in we dumped our gear and headed for the games room for a couple rounds of pool before hitting the bed some 2 ...

... they had sonar and other tracking devices to search for the allusive monster, but I also just really enjoyed the beauty of the lake and the surrounding hills. The pictures on this entry include the ones from Endiburgh (entitled Edinburgh a, b, c...) as well as from the day trip (entitled Trip a, b, c...) .