A fine start to a fine Scottish day.....the tartan on our coffee!
Love the butter, made with a "butter curler"...perhaps you already have one?
One on each plate...another fine start to a fine Scottish day!
After breakfast the fog over Loch Ness is burning off.
There are several of these red currant bushes around the gardens. These are for the birds. The ones we eat -- they are delicious -- are covered by a mesh to keep the birds away.
This tortoise as our hostess, Catherine, called it (turtle to me) has a special story. She found it when visiting her son and his family of wife and 4 children who have been living in China for the past 10 years. Catherine spotted the tortoise and fell in love with it "perfect for our garden", she declared. Instantly, her son and husband both declared: "You can't carry nor ship that home!!!" It weighs about 80 pounds! The following year, son and family are transferred back to Scotland....and, you may have guessed it, the tortoise appeared under the Christmas tree, thanks to son and daughter in law who had it sent home in their corporate paid container.
Loch Ness is about 23 miles long from Inverness to Fort Augustus. It is an important part (about a third of it) of the Caledonian Canal. Our prejudice was that Loch Ness was an ugly loch known for the myth of The Loch Ness Monster. We did not see a monster but we have loved Loch Ness.
The water in the loch is beautifully clear.
Tom went for a walk down the hill to the Loch after breakfast this morning finding a nicely built rick bridge of a stream.
And steps down to the water's edge...
Back at the top, a view of the last mist rising off the lake -- still no Nessie.
Damn, it was right here all along! A sculpture in Fort Augustus along the canal.
We wander along the canal, finding the Caledonian Canal Museum. Caledonia was the Roman name for what is now Scotland. It was the area just beyond the northern Britannia frontier of the Roman Empire.
The Caledonian Canal was built to 1) provide employment to a depressed area of Scotland, 2) to prevent ships from going around the dangerous northern Scottish coast, and 3) to improve commerce between the two sides of Scotlant.
The locks, started in 1803, had manually gates -- later modernised to pneumatic.
There is a rotating bridge where A82 passes through Fort Augustus. A82 runs the length of the Great Glen from Inverness to Fort William.
Thomas Telford is kind of a Scottish civil engineering hero. He surveyed, designed, and built the Caledonian Canal. He has streets, castles, and buildings named after him in the area.
The Canal was built before the Panama Canal but after a similar canal in Sweden which Telford also designed. It is still the engineering feat of Scotland. Now it is mostly pleasure boats and cruise boats that pass through.
Check out this boat....there are 3 children in life jackets, Mom is holding an infant....
and there are two ropes guiding this sailboat...Dad on the right and the oldest child, a son, on the left. Now note the bicycles, then the dinghy with the kayak.....and lastly, the size of the vessel!!!!!!!
Most of the boats are moved through these locks by owner-supplied human power. A few used boat power to help them along. No Panamanian mechanical mules here.
The canal was designed to handle vessels 150 feet long by 37 feet wide -- the large commercial sailing vessels of the time. Now the long boats are river cruisers.
The pneumatic controls for one of the gates -- several lock operators are moving up and down the locks as the passage occurs.
After watching parts of a passage, we head out on a walk along the canal -- another beautiful warm day -- may make it up to 80 F today.
We had no idea what "fly tipping" is. Saw several signs prohibiting said activity.
Wondered if perhaps Tom was "fly tipping", but learned later that the term means "do not dump rubbish" rather than do not ________.
The lovely pink wildflower is everywhere.....hopefully, we will find out what it is before we leave Scotland.
As we walk down the canal path, we see more boats coming in to Fort Augustus to go through the locks to Loch Ness.
Along the path we find a weir that serves as an overflow from the canal to the river that runs parallel and below the canal to control the level in the canal.
More boats, people, and dogs headed for the locks. Remember this boat. More later.....
A perfect mirror.....
Dare we say once again: "These people love their dogs!!!"
Kayakers along the canal. These were not tourists....they stopped to talk to other walkers about local events.
We are returning from our walk, seeing all the boats lining up, waiting for permission to pass.
Back in Fort Augustus, we note a tribute to Queen Victoria on her 60th anniversary.
It is getting crowded in the locks....the big sailboat is from Bergen, Norway; most of the boats appeared to be holiday rentals.
Remember that boat we told you to remember? Here they are again in the lock, waiting....and I, Kathy, am taking the pictures....as I was back then, but had totally forgotten that fact. The woman turned to me and shouted: "Stop that!" I wasn't even certain to whom she was yelling, till she did so once again....and pointed to me! I was trying to get a picture of the dog who had been pacing nervously...
They were German. She started to complain to her husband who ignored the whole situation cuz he is busy directing the boat.
As this group prepares to pass through the final lock, where we are currently watching, the German woman in the green shirt, spies me in the crowd.....takes 5 snapshots of me as rapidly as possible and screams: "I will post these on Facebook!" I grinned by broadest grin, waved, said OK and wished her a happy voyage. Notice the rotating bridge at the end of the locks.; it is a cantilevered swing bridge.
During this shouting, T and I were eating dinner on the banks, watching the boat parade.
Fried cheese for one and fish n chips for the other
As soon as the screamin' German and her group set off for Loch Ness, a new group is waiting to come the other way. By now it is nearly 7 pm. This is the last group to pass.
All in, bridge closed, closing the gates behind them.
Bring on the water to raise the boats by 8 feet.
One of the many benefits of taking an extended journey....you can spend the whole day lazing by a canal, walking, talking, eating, drinking, watching the boats, the people and the world go by....return to your nest....and relax some more.....thanks for reading our story.....
