Loch Ness and Loch Lomond

Wow!  Another spectacular day driving through the most amazing scenery.  First we woke to a misty morning and had breakfast at the hotel.  There was haggis so we tried it.  To be honest, if we didn't know what it was we would probably have said it tasted ok.

We started off heading South alongside Loch Ness.  We stopped to check out the Neptune's staircase locks.  They were absolutely enormous.  There was a lovely sailing boat making its way up the locks and we enjoyed watching for a while. 

At Urquhart Castle we stopped to take a photo but continued on our way.  By the time we reached Fort William it was lunchtime so we had a browse around the town and had lunch in a cafe that had a huge window overlooking the loch.  Mick was thinking of Peter back home as he's a fan of whiskey.  There was plenty to choose from.

We drove through Ben Nevis & Glen Coe which boasted more incredible scenery.  Then it was the Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park driving down the Western edge of Loch Lomond.  We passed a car pulled over on an awkward bend and stopped to take a photo in a layby just beyond.  They were still standing there when we were ready to move on again.  Mick decided to walk back and check that they were ok. 

It was a Canadian family and they were driving a hire car.  They had veered too near the edge of the road and driven over a sharp protruding rock with both tyres on the left of the car.  They were both shredded.  To make matters worse they had no reception on their mobile phone so couldn't even call for help.  We lent them ours and it took over an hour of explaining their story over and over to each person they were put through to.  They had been told three different numbers to call, each one being the wrong one.  They almost used up the credit on one of our phones and the battery on the other!   While all this was going on I stood back at the previous bend in the road with the daughter of the family and her boyfriend as they waved traffic across to the other side of the road.  It helped to slow the traffic down too.  Once help was on it's way we said farewell, refusing their offers of money, and off we went again.

We had booked accomodation for the night just near Glasgow.  It's a country club equestrian centre with hotel rooms.  Nice quiet location and a restaurant on site.  We had a nice dinner overlooking the indoor arena.