Drumnadrochit, Speyside
It is great that we don't have be on time for breakfast here, so we can sleep late. After breakfast we stay in for a few hours to chat with Iain and Cathy, enjoying coffee and tea. But in the afternoon we have to get out for a while now the morning drizzle has ended.
There is a direct road from Beauly over a plateau to Drumnadrochit but also a lot of single track roads between this road and Loch Ness and we have never explored them, so today is a nice day to do that. As often this area also offers a wide variety of landscapes: sometimes barren plains, heather fields and dense woods. Right to Loch Ness the area has quite a high altitude since we have to descend a long and steep road to arrive at the lake.
Lucky as we are, we shoot a few pictures of the monster of Loch Ness, but we won't show you for fear we will become too famous. It is a wooden stick, stuck in the bottom, but since there is a fierce wind we see the top of the stick coming out of the waves as if there is a beast swimming, surfacing now and then.
At Drumnadrochit we visit this time the southern Monster Exhibition. In 2000 we have been to the northern one and after this visit we conclude that the northern exhibition is much better. W pay £ 4.75 for a 20-minute movie which looks quite amateurishly and we have seen most of it already on Discovery Channel.
From Drumnadrochit we drive via Inverness to the southeast and take a turn at Carrbridge. From there we drive back to the north. Another region where we haven't been so often. When we turn off the highway there is suddenly a flock of ibexes, big brown greyish animals with long horns, quietly grazing along the road. They probably have fled the cold (it is almost freezing) and the snow to lower areas. But the road is very narrow and too busy to stop for a picture.
And again we reach a plateau, most of it covered with heather. When the sky is heavily cloudy it can look very dark and gloomy here, but within minutes the colours can change because of the light shining differently on the landscape. It looks never the same, that is one of the reasons of the beauty of Scotland.
We also see a lot of game today and some inhabitants have even placed roadsigns warning for young pheasants and squirrels. We see dozens of pheasants and sometimes we have to brake firmly for them. Furthermore we see a lot of hares and rabbits and sometimes in the distance bigger animals that we cannot identify.
Near Forres we run into this medieval church, like there are so many in Scotland. It is funny that they stand sometimes on places, just like often the case with castles, that you would never expect to see them. The same is true about the sometimes surprising views.
It is very chilly, today, and we return to the hotel early where we are welcomed with a big dinner. At night we spend some pleasant hours in the pub having conversations and arguments. The Scottish like a good argument, but as far as we know, it never ends in a fight. Strange fellows sometimes, the Scottish, but very friendly. We feel quite at home with them.
© Teije and Elisabeth 2000 - 2013
There is a direct road from Beauly over a plateau to Drumnadrochit but also a lot of single track roads between this road and Loch Ness and we have never explored them, so today is a nice day to do that. As often this area also offers a wide variety of landscapes: sometimes barren plains, heather fields and dense woods. Right to Loch Ness the area has quite a high altitude since we have to descend a long and steep road to arrive at the lake.
At Drumnadrochit we visit this time the southern Monster Exhibition. In 2000 we have been to the northern one and after this visit we conclude that the northern exhibition is much better. W pay £ 4.75 for a 20-minute movie which looks quite amateurishly and we have seen most of it already on Discovery Channel.
And again we reach a plateau, most of it covered with heather. When the sky is heavily cloudy it can look very dark and gloomy here, but within minutes the colours can change because of the light shining differently on the landscape. It looks never the same, that is one of the reasons of the beauty of Scotland.
Near Forres we run into this medieval church, like there are so many in Scotland. It is funny that they stand sometimes on places, just like often the case with castles, that you would never expect to see them. The same is true about the sometimes surprising views.
