We touched down at Glasgow airport just after 12.00 and immediately asked the lady at the passport counter for the ‘directions to James’s house’. Strangely enough she hadn’t heard of him and neither had the next person we asked (I thought everyone in Scotland knew James – after all most people in Australia know him). In hindsight we realised that they probably did know him, but due to the fierce rivalry between the Scots of the East & West Coasts, they weren’t going to make things easy for us! Nevermind, after a full couple of days exploring the Highlands we managed to find our way back to the East Coast and finally arrived at the Dunbar Inn.
James and Val have the most amazing home, right on the shore of the North Sea. Dunbar is a popular little town of around 7,000 people and it is full of history. We wandered up to the local pub for tea with James, Val and some of his relies, and after sampling some of the local seafood and a couple of pints of ‘Bellhaven Best’ James took us for a tour of the Village. After growing up here James really knew the history of the place and it was great getting this insight into the town. One of the sites was an old 13th Century castles (now ruins) which was built to protect the locals from retribution from the English after they would go down and steal their livestock. The castle was also used to imprison Mary Queen of Scots for a while (and they say Australia’s full of criminals!).
The view from the back of James and Val's house
Friday 13th August – The Scottish Highlands.
After picking up our hire car from Glasgow, we just simply started driving... We weren’t really sure which direction to head but I knew that Loch Ness was in the North West so that was the way we went. Along the way we came to some very pretty little towns such as Luss. This place is full of quaint little stone cottages with beautiful gardens and we spent quite a while here just wandering around. We then drove along the side of Loch Lomond before turning West and crossing some spectacular mountainous country to get to Fort William where we stayed for the night. The actual place we stayed was at the base of ‘Ben Nevis’, Scotland’s highest mountain.
After a Scottish Pie for breakfast we drove to Glenfinnan to see the Glenfinnan viaduct. Cathy is a bit of a Harry Potter fan and this is bridge that the train crosses in the movie. Typically us, we got there just as the Train was about to cross the viaduct and we managed to get a couple of nice photos.
Glenfinnan Bridge (Harry Potter)
Back on the road we were off to Loch Ness in search of Nessie! We arrived at Fort Augustus and found this place to be a real tourist hub – full of other people also trying to catch a glimpse of the fabled monster. We figured Nessie would never come down to this part of the Loch with so many people around so we travelled a bit further to where it was a bit quieter. Still no monster... so since I had my snorkeling gear in the car I thought I’d put it on and took a closer look. Well... you wouldn’t believe it, while I was out there straining my eyes in the murky waters Cathy spotted the monster and she reckons she’s got some photos to prove it!!!
Is this the real LochNess monster?????
Once again the scenery around here was just beautiful and the drive up alongside the Lochs has to be one of world’s best road trips. It was definitely one of my favorites and it shouldn’t be missed if you ever come to Scotland. We could have probably spent much more time up here in the highlands, but we wanted to get back to catch up with our friends James & Val back in Dunbar.
Hopefully will get photos for Dubai up today as well
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete