Morven House Hotel Alness

... there... it looks a pretty small place for a city, some nice streets though and the river was nice at night.

Saturday I worked at the Aquadome - there was so much frost when I woke up it was ridiculous, and caught me completely unaware... and then it was ...

Evening all!

Well today is our first day on our Scottish adventure. Our day started early enough and by 9am we were off on the road. We have TWO tour guides this time around, Matt and Chris who alternate driving and pointing out all the interesting things. Again there's about 40 people on the tour, 28 Aussies, a couple of kiwis, 4 Americans, 1 Canadian, 1 Indian, a couple of South Africans and a lady from Turkey who can barely speak English (a la Alfred ...

... 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 ...

... Scotland after some early military successes and then marched on England. However he lost support of the clan leaders on the way because of the lack of English and Franch support for their cause. Charles' army reluctantly returned to Scotland where he was persued by the English army, commanded by his cousin the Duke of Cumberland, all the way to Inverness

Increasingly desparate, Charles decided on a surprise night attack on ...

... this year and next year will be tackling the final section to John O'Groats.  Questions come from all directions about the  route I'm  taking and about the final section.  I wish I could tell them that it's a stunning end to their wonderful journey and that it doesn't involve any road walking but sadly I can't!  I can tell them though that there are some lovely little towns and villages en route .

On reaching Drumnadrochit I can see why coming the other way ...

Spent yesterday walking through Scottish terrain. Unfortunately the weather wasn't sunny but it wasn't raining so since coming to the UK I have come to know that as 'a good day'. I have to admit it, but any day that doesn't rain I consider a good day of weather too. How quickly standards change..

Time has flown by here in Scotland. Back down to London tomorrow and off to India Wednesday. This is quite possibly the most boring blog entry ever, but the photos should at least be ok

... t illuminated with the world’s exotica, but instead Birmingham, Leeds and York and the like. And Inverness. I was going to Scotland, and I couldn’t wait.I wasn’t necessarily excited singularly by the fact I was going to Inverness that night, but more by how I was getting there – the sleeper train. For reasons I can’t quite put my finger on, I’ve always wanted to travel somewhere on a train and have my own little world, where I can lock myself away ...

... 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 ...

... too if I'd let him!! Today has been my first day of rain but it has not dampened my spirits, even when I have to walk through a prickley gorse bush to get to a path I knew was there (thanks to my Navigator!). Have just gone through Alness. I shall be in Inverness vy Saturday, walking roads most of the way.

... 8211; we’d surely have died of exposure.

Through Dundee and Perth we then turned northwards and threaded between the Monadhliath and Cairngrom mountains. We kept an eye on the car’s outside temperature gauge with great interest as it dipped below 20 degrees Fahrenheit, eventually bottoming out at 13 degrees. At -10.5 degrees Celsius this was easily the lowest temperatures either Ali or I had faced, and we so quickly pulled ...