The Waterfront Lodge 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 ...

Hey there! Well it's hard to believe that we're already halfway through Scotland, in an week we'll be in Amsterdam, the week after we'll be in Paris and the week after that we'll be back home and Josh will be back at work !

So today began early after a hearty brekkie of porridge (yes say after me 'that's nooowt how ya make poorrridge!') Mercifully the weather held out on us through the day - our first stop was Loch Clooney (no relation to George!) with some beautiful views of the ...

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..

... was a lot more difficult than we expected. It was an absolute nightmare and was very difficult on the knees and calf muscles. Got back down to the bottom after about 7.5 hours and headed straight for the Glen Nevis Inn for a couple of pints and a portion of chips...lovely, just what I needed. I DID IT, just climbed the UK highest mountain without any prior experience and training and in really bad 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.

... a photo I took of Kilchurn Castle on Lock Awe that left me spellbound - the castle, water and mountains just leave you transfixed.

Oban was beautful in its own right nestled into a harbour and the next day we caught a ferry to the Isle of Mull where we caught a small gauge rail to an old castle.

Sue

Getting out of Edinburgh was interesting. We found to our horror that the ...

... headed to the beautiufl old city. We started off at the Museum of Scotland and were given a tour of the highlights of the museum by a charming Englishman in tartan pants who clearly had an English view of the history of Scotland. He was all over the union of the two cultures and how everyone lived happily ever after. That's nice for him, isn't it? Although I had lost my appetite during the tour, we found a cafe called the Elephant ...

... to ask if they could ring ahead to Mallaig and find a B & B for us - no luck in either Fort William or Mallaig. The tourism lady sent us on our way with a "good luck" and we departed to search for a lone little B & B with the last vacancy in the whole town. And we found it!! Knowing that we wouldn't have to sleep in the car put our minds at ease so we then concentrated on filling our bellies. We found a great pub in town and had salmon and gammon - two of Scotland's finest!