Kildonan B&B Fort William

Today we left the amazing Morags Hostel and started heading down the west coast of Scotland. Past Loch Oich and Loch Locchie - which is where the battle of the shirts occured. It was so hot on the day of the battle that halfway through a ceasefire was called, and everyone jumped in the Loch for a dip. It was still so hot that most men resumed fighting in just their shirts, or just plain naked!

Then to Ben Nevis which is the highest peak in Scotland and all of the United ...

... the bus onwards to the Isle of Sky. It sits just west of the mainland, over a very pricey bridge - the budget had been about 8 million pounds which blew out to over 32 million pounds, due to ****** weather and some endangered otters nearby. The government then drew the locals ire when they bought the ferry terminal (which had been the other form of transport to the island) and closed it down - meaning everyone had to use the bridge and pay the toll - which was the SAME as what you ...

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 ...

Today I left SYHA Torridon (with the key I must add) and headed off to Fort Augustus via Inverness, again stopping along the way to take some photos.

I must say, it was nice to stop in Inverness and actually see some people around. I had a walk around the shops, filled the car up with diesel and went shopping in Morisons.

On my way to ...

... br>Some other info Ross gave us.

- Scotish flag is based on a vision that St Andrew had while fighting the British a white cross shining against a blue sky.
- golf is actually illegal in Scotland, William the IV declared it illegal as it stopped the young men practising their archery, the law has never been changed.. lol

Back in Edinburgh, food and sleep,early start in the morning!!!!! oh no..

This is the first day that I have set an alarm. Big day today, off to climb the highest mountain in the Scotland (and the UK), Ben Nevis at 4406 feet. Up at 6:30 so that I can get showered and get to
breakfast for 7:00.

We set off at 8:30 and head towards the visitors centre, the climb from here is a little bit of an easier start than from the YHA (and the bridge was closed for repair). The weather ...

I've made it to Fort William, checked into the SYHA Glen Nevis and decided to go for a walk in to town to get some dinner. Little did I know that it was 3.5 miles each way in the pouring rain to Morrisons.

Gone to far to turn around and I am wet now.

... brake, and the car that didn't like indecision! Some of the main streets were closed because of tramline-building, which confused the NavMan, ever-insistent that we go through roads which were impassable.

In the end, we just took off in the general direction we thought was right, and relied on the NavMan eventually saying "re-calculating route". After many twists and turns and small ...

... and headed towards Fort William. We are staying at the Youth Hostel and are surrounded by mountains once again. We have once again experienced the shock of being buzzed by the Airforce Harrier Jets. We Aussies just are not used to jets screaming at low levels over our heads.... we still are in awe of these episodes... which happen regularly. This afternoon we ventured up Ben Nevis!!!!! well marginally anyway.... we can say that ...

Another lovely town. I stopped here because it was as far as I could get on this day towards Glasgow. Most of the hotels and bed and breakfast places were full - and the ones that weren't were charging very high prices because they knew that most of the other places were full. Still, I ended up sleeping somewhere as I recall. Just like most other times in my life.