Tulloch Castle Hotel Inverness

... like me... hmm! This road literally passed over the top of the world... jaw-dropping...





When the road came out, almost in civilisation, we were around Braemar. Not much civilsation for long though - the other side was Glenshee, home to ...

... that you could show other noblefolk your area. The local Duke went one step further and even hired a crazy old man Hermit to live in his land, so that he had something extra special to brag about! We stopped at Ossians hut, which sat just over a waterfall and watched the salmon try to jump upstream to their spawning areas.

Back on the bus - a quick lunch at the Tipsy Laird, which for those who watched Monarch of the Glen (a BBC show a few years back) was ...

... my packed lunch that Helena has made for me.
Cheers Sis!
I
make it all the way to Carlisle before stopping at Tescos for break and
some food, straight to the hot food counter for some hot chicken legs,
mmm! That will keep me going for a bit! I keep going and head to
Culrain where my next hostel is ...

... was a real delight.

The last day we were able to witness "The Great River Ness Raft & Duck Race" - which has been staged annually since 1978. Teams of four built their own rafts and paddles - and raced them down the river Ness. It was a laugh to see people padding with large tennis racquets and all sorts of strange things, on rafts made from all sorts of paraphernalia - one of them empty beer barrels strung together ...

... a journey on the Caledonian Sleeper.

I don’t know where this hopelessly romantic fascination came from, but I suspect it must have been a scene from a movie I saw as a child, or a collection of scenes from such movies. I can even picture it, the hourglass women in the red dress and wide brimmed red hat, worn at an angle, with a black net veil covering big dreamy brown eyes, heavy with tears. Thick tongues of steam lick around her legs as she looks with lips parted, her ...

... by side for the whole roadworks. They must have Millions of witches hats, someone is making a lot of money. Oh yeah and these aren't just normal witches hats these things are on steroids. They are huge! They are taller than your waist easily. Anyway Katherine found one and we then started to try to make Nessy calls to see if we could entice her to show her face but to no avail. Dave got his obligatory photo standing in Loch Ness in his boxers, we got blinded by ...

... Wheel, a rotating lift that transports boats between two canals. This is a futuristic looking engineering masterpiece. It was nice to see something new and modern after ten days of historic castles and lochs. We spent the night on a windy hill just outside of Edinburgh. The spot overlooked a huge complex of power stations that were so lit up that the whole area had a yellow glow. It was a change from the pitch black darkness of the previous nights.

... having a great time. Again when I get the chance I will add some pictures. Yesterday a man who was walking his two dogs near where Padi had parked up, looking for a camping spot for us, very kindly donated £10. Sorry we didn't get your name, but thankyou very much. :) Posters and cards are being handed out along the way, so word about the Trudge is spreading.

Beautiful weather continues in Scotland. Sunny day with clear blue skies over the Loch. The tourist information office suggested exploring the south side of the Loch instead of joining the tour coaches et al who would cover the north side (as that's where the jetties are to catch a boat ride on the Loch). A nice pub and the only beach that's accessible on the Loch were also part of the attraction, not to mention some scenic drives ...

... and swiftly moving water of the River Ness was probably no colder than the air.

In the last of the daylight we tracked along the western edge of the 23 mile long but very narrow Loch Ness. Previously I had wondered if the monster myth had been a creative attempt to get tourists to come to an otherwise unremarkable place (a tactic similar to the creation of a ridiculously long name for a certain nondescript village in North-West Wales ...