20 September 2014

The sun was out this morning so we decided to drive up the peninsula for an hour or so before heading out to Inverness. It looked like the drive to Inverness would take only 2.5 hours. The visibility was much better than yesterday. We went back to several of the same viewpoints and the photos ops were great – and no cows or sheep in the road. OK, there were two sheep in the road. 

Old Man of Storr

Sheep waiting for the bus

We turned back at about 11 and Michael checked the distance to Inverness. We discovered that the TomTom had once again plotted a short cut that avoided the route along Loch Ness. Once we straightened that out, it was clear that the trip would be over 3 hours. Time to get moving – except I kept stopping to take pictures. J

We stopped at a hotel to check the lunch menu. Too pricey, but someone recommended a pub about 6 miles down the road. We found the Jac-O-Bite Inn at the bottom of a loch. The price was right and there was a great view, so we had lunch.

The debated whether to take what looked like a more direct route over to Loch Ness, then decided to take the longer route that crossed the Caledonian Canal. I don’t know about the other road, but the scenery on the one through Glen Garry is spectacular.

Urqhart Castle

We stopped to take a quick picture of the canal, then moved on to Loch Ness. The only trouble with the road along the loch is the trees. There really are no views of the loch until you get to Urquart Castle. It was after 4 by the time we got to the castle, so we decided to give it a miss in favor of arriving before 5 in Inverness.

We had a hard time finding a street address for the hotel. The one we entered took us to a shopping center. We had to ask a couple of people how to find the hotel from the parking lot. Too many roundabouts. The good news was there was a nice restaurant across from the hotel so we didn’t have to drive anywhere for dinner. Belgian chocolate brownie for dessert. Yum.

Loch Ness