A very early start today to make it to our Loch Ness tour bus. The 16-seater took us north through the Highlands to the southern-most tip of the 25-mile long loch. As is always the way, today was one of the coldest air temp days we've felt, although it was very still, and heading north and higher in altitude didn't help. On the upside we did see frost so thick you can only imagine – frozen spider webs, frozen plants, frozen puddles, everything. All of this in the middle of the day! We were a little pleased; it wasn't snow but it looked very close to it, and we had an ice fight. The bus, led by driver and tour guide Tony, learnt about all sorts of cool anecdotes about the history of Scotland, its formation and the many wars that have been fought on its soil (mainly against the English). He was suspiciously patriotic and took great joy in recounting all of the things that Scotsmen had apparently discovered, invented, witnessed, been part of, written and generally claimed in his many entertaining stories. Along the way to the famous loch we passed through many quaint villages (not surprising really considering the capital, Edinburgh, is only about 450,000 people), got free whisky tasting and met characters such as Hamish the mountain ox and a semi-tame red deer that is due to be terminated because it has had too much contact with humans and consequently is being persecuted by its deer friends. Additionally, we passed a number of castles (including where Monarch of the Glen was filmed) and heard the histories of their various inhabitants. We also saw some amazing things like the Three Sisters (big mountain buttresses) among the lumpy, stumpy mountains that make up the Highlands. Interestingly, many people up there still speak Gaelic – it is taught in primary schools alongside English as a first language and all the street signs have both English and Gaelic on them. Also, there is no trespass law Scotland - if you own land in the countryside it is illegal to prevent people from hiking across it or camping on it.
Loch Ness itself was pretty underwhelming, perhaps because we went to the less touristy Fort Augusta and not all the way to Inverness. It was very foggy, and we passed on the £10 per person boat ride on the loch, which was from all reports bloody cold. It's a pity, but at least we can say we've been here. There was a cool little system of locks up the hill though.
Our return to Edinburgh at 7:30 tonight meant we missed almost all of the torchlight procession, a walk up Princes St that marks the start of Hogmanay. We had planned to do it, but had forgotten about it and only caught up for the last few hundred metres. There were people (theatre students?) dressed up as demons etc and a lot of people. A very impressive fireworks show followed, which only whets our appetites more for the new years fireworks in a few days time.
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