Day 47...Friday, 11th March...Nessie Talked to Me!

Remember this is a blog & it updates backwards! Go to the bottom and find the first post if you want to get the gist of this in sequence...

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Woke up a few times thru' the night to absolute white outs!

The snow was falling so heavily it was like fog, except the flakes were as huge as golf balls, but of course, not heavy like hail...

So, this morning I woke to a beautiful clear sunny day. Time to head off the 50 feet to the bus station & get my ticket for Loch Ness.

A nice blanket of snow fell overnight...Looking out the bathroom window.

Self explanatory

Note...Different top!

Heading out over the Ness River towards Loch Ness...Inverness

I'll be an expert at taking pics thru' dirty bus windows by the time I finish this trip!

It's a different atmosphere for pics over here. In Europe there's always that misty fog until 1-2pm, but here it's like in Australia...

The ever present church spires in all these old towns.

Gotta love these little houses!

A couple of mins out of town...

It's really very much like down in the Snowy at times, where Switzerland was never so!

I'm not sure where the Loch of Ness actually begins & the River Ness ends...

It was nice going up...

I'll leave all the pics up. I like them...

It clouded over & looked like rain for about 10 mins, then cleared up again.

There's another Castle on the shore in the distance, but I can't seem to capture it from the bus.

Some nice trees...in the way again!

Right where the trunk of the trees are; is another small Castle ruin

Got it!

A nice little village...

This is part of the Highlands base...

The main store in the town that services this Loch Ness area...

The Police Station...

Loch Ness...officially. It's a massively long & skinny freshwater lake. The snow on yonder hills is melting now...

A little farm house with a rather grand view.

Urquhart Castle ruins...

Had to climb up & down fences & over bramble hedges, as they weren't open until AFTER I left!

The round thing is actually the roof of the info centre. Others climbed up & took pics but it was a bit slippery for me, as I had my high heeled boots on & they are meant for walking not climbing!

Sprung...scrambling down the embankment!

This is Gorse bush? A really prickly hedge bush.

I'm heading back & they just opened the Castle...

A little farm house snuggled up in the bushes!

There are sheep on yonder hill!

Just nice farm land & scenery.

Check out the hikikg track! You can see the village way over in the distance & I've gone halfway already...

A shy sheep, nibbling away on grass under the snow.

Love the town names...

A Scottish mountain stream. The water is clear as, but the base stones are brown, not white, like in Europe & the water is not blue.

The sheep could not care less!

This was interesting. The side of the road is about 6 inches higher than the road base!

Clever advertising!

Solicitors are real estate agents too!

Nice mossy rock walls to sit on!

Those little flowers popping up again! They are not tulips as I first thought in Strasbourg, France.

Poor little pansies...full of snow last night.

Look at all the different chimney pots on the chimney.

Looks like a Sea Captain's home!

Waiting for the bus to bring us back to Inverness after the couple of miles hike.

This is an old Castle overlooking Inverness, which is now used as a Court House.

Rather grand building...

An old Church. It photographed really well in the sun.

A Scottish Pie!

It was a nice day to-day. Glad I went & that it did fine up!

I leave here for Edinburgh to-morrow at 10.30 am for one of the most picturesque train journeys in the world. So, it's cameras on standby as it looks like it's going to be a great day!

Total spend for the 3 days in Loch Ness was 60 quid...including Hostel 3 nites, food, bus tour to-day etc.
I paid the 10 pounds for the advance train booking (normally 42 pounds or so) weeks ago, so will total that in at the end of the trip.

It was a nice day to-day & am glad I went. Thank goodness the sun was shining as I wanted some good pics.

Will work out a total for the whole trip as soon as I get closer to the end.
The Switzerland leg was the most expensive. Triple my other weeks. Never mind, I know how not to do bookings now!
Catch you tomorrow.