Day 4

Today’s adventure was one we were both REALLY looking forward to; a 12-hour day trip up into the Scottish Highlands and into Loch Ness, complete with a boat ride (to maybe spot Nessie!)

We were part of a group of 16 people in a tour van, so it didn’t seem too overwhelming. Of course all the spots we stopped for pictures and on the boat in Loch Ness it was quite busy. Our tour guide was a lovely Scottish lady named Kylie. She was a fantastic narrator and story teller during the almost 9 hours we were in the van, and played great Scottish music during the narration breaks. Just like the previous guides we’d had, Kylie KNEW her history. It was almost hard at times to absorb some of her stories while being simultaneously distracted by the amazing scenery. Not only did she have great historical information about the clans and royalty during various time periods, she taught us a ton about the geography and history of the different mountain formations, geology and topography.

We spent quite a bit of time talking about Lochs (obviously!), and I now know that in the Scottish language, loch is the Gaelic word for a lake or sea inlet, referring to various types of bodies of water including natural lakes, sea inlets, and artificial lakes; many of which were formed by glaciers and are found in glens (or valleys, in American English). The word “loch” reflects the region’s Gaelic heritage, and most bodies of standing water in Scotland are called lochs, rather than lakes. We learned that many of the lochs have locks (like the Soo Locks we visited this summer)! Actually, when we got to Loch Ness, there was a working lock for the Loch!! There are 33,535 locks in Scotland, and most are fresh water locks!

Of course, the legend of the Loch Ness monster was heavily discussed. There are varying opinions on it, and Kylie told us after the boat ride that the man who took the famous 1933 photo supposedly said on his deathbed that it was a fake, and wasn’t even taken on Loch Ness. Be that as it may, the First Mate on our tour boat showed us a screenshot of a sonar image taken last year of a very suspiciously shaped “something” in the water. He correctly said that sonars are not capable of lying or being faked, so that keeps the door open! Probably one of the biggest coincidental findings was the bones of a pleiosaur (which is a type of dinosaur) that were found on the banks of Loch Ness in 2003.

At the end of our very long day, we were treated to a stop at an area that had a shop, café, and 2 highland cows! Highland cows are a must see while in Scotland, and they did not disappoint! We also saw countless sheep, (some very high in the mountains), some red stags, and pheasants along the way.

I would say that in addition to the beyond-spectacular scenery and actually going out onto Loch Ness, the most interesting information I learned was that COUNTLESS famous movies and TV shows have been filmed across Scotland, and there are numerous famous singers and bands that are from Scotland. Maybe I already had some idea of this, but hearing the names and numbers was quite surprising!

Tomorrow we will say a sad goodbye to Scotland, but hopefully it’s really just, “until next time!” We will have another long day of travel back to London for our red-eye flight to South Africa tomorrow night. I’m so incredibly happy with how this first leg of the trip went! It honestly could not have been better! Hopefully this bodes well for the next leg, which will be a whole ‘nother level of adventure !!