Photos
We woke to wet, cloudy gray conditions again. Seems we’ll
get no real break here. All the Brits onboard keep telling us how hot and sunny
the rest of the UK is this week. I guess it’s meant to help but it’s not.
So Brian came in the dining room last night after dessert
and announced that if we wanted to we could get off the ship before it leaves Fort Augustus tomorrow at 8:30am and they would sail down the locks and out into
Loch Ness and turn around and sail back and dock to pick us up before leaving
for Inverness. I guess we plan to do that. I guess it might also depend on the
weather after breakfast. I’ll keep you posted. After getting down these last docks, we sail
the 23 mile length of Loch Ness and dock for the night at Muirtown, Inverness.
In the morning the next day, they put us off. I guess I have looked forward to
this trip for too long and built it up too much in my mind that with the rain
and no views, I feel really let down. Of course, this has nothing to do with
Lord of the Glens and just to do with the weather and it is weather, you don’t
know what you’re going to get. Hoping
for clear skies over in Ireland. Everyone here has told us about ordering
Guinness there and the procedure and need for patience and that we will love it
in Ireland that it is beautiful and the people are so warm and welcoming. They
tell us the grass really is greener over there. I’m really looking forward to
that now.
But for now, Loch Ness. Loch Ness is nearly 1,000 feet deep
and contains more water than all of the lakes and reservoirs in England and
Wales combined. Isn’t that amazing? No wonder they have the monster legend. The
power just went out. Thank goodness I had this tablet on because otherwise I’d
be in complete darkness. More later. Whew, power's back. Mostly I was missing
the fan after I got my pants on and opened the curtains for a little light. I will take that as my cue to get out of here.
We had a cold breakfast today. The kitchen couldn’t make
porridge or eggs this morning because of the power outage. Everything was back
cooking by lunch though. Anyway, the quick cold breakfast made it easy to get
off by 8:30am. We would walk down to Loch Ness and meet the Lord of the Glen at
10:30am or so. We had seen some shaggy red cows off on the other side of the River
Ness and wanted to walk over to see them. We checked with one of the sailors
about where exactly to meet back with the boat and how to get there, then we
set off down the locks. To be sure we could find the spot he was describing.
Since it looked like Lord
of the Glens was leaving right away, we then hung around for the 1st
2 locks and watched. It is a little scary. But, all canal locks are
fascinating. Our as the brochure I picked up in the Visitors Center said, “Canals
are clever!” I went through the Caledonian Canal Visitor’s Centre and picked up some brochures. We found an open shop and
wandered through it. Then we turned across the river and saw a sign reading
rare breeds farm open, take the footpath between the bridge and the gas
station. We did. It was £2
per adult or £5
per family on an honor deposit system. We paid our £5 and entered. We’re glad
we finally got to see some red-banged Highland cows. The way they are on all the
postcards and souvenirs, you’d have thought they were thick as rabbits around here,
but those were the first and almost the only ones we saw. Later, I did see 2 or
3 from the train on the way back to Edinburgh and I saw about that many in
Ireland from the bus. Since we were in a moving vehicle every other time we saw
Highlands cattle, Clay only got photos of these.
We came back down to Loch Ness and watched 2 men fly fishing
in the river and a dog fetching in the Loch as Lord of the Glens docked at the
mouth of the Caledonian Canal. Somehow Clay managed to take no photos of Lord
of the Glens out in Loch Ness, or as it was circling back to dock. We could
hear as Brian announced over the loudspeakers that they would delay departure
until 11:30am to give everyone an hour ashore. We went to see some small boats
headed up on the locks and another shop and the Clansman Center where Clay
bought a bandanna with a Celtic knot design. Then we walked by the former
Fort/Abbey which is now private property and cannot be visited and back to the
ship.
We sailed for about an hour before lunch at 12:30pm. We sat
upfront in the lounge area mostly. The good news is that there has been very
little rain so far today. It is still mostly cloudy though, but a little warmer
and drier. We put together a jigsaw puzzle of Tobermory while sailing Loch
Ness.
Lunch was onion soup followed by macaroni and cheese with
garlic bread for me. Clay had herring salad and the 3rd option was
lamb curry. Dessert was a fruit sponge cake with hot sauce Anglais. It was
good. We sat with a couple we had dinner with last night. During lunch we sailed by Castle Urquhart and I sent Clay out to get photos. I only saw the ruins from the restaurant window as we sailed past.
Tonight is Scotch Broth soup. No idea what that is.
Appetizer is Haggis! Eeuw! I am having steak and Yorkshire Pudding. Clay is
having some kind of local Loch fish. There was also some vegetarian option.
Tonight is the Captain’s Farewell Dinner. So we’ll dress up again even though
there was no onboard request or suggestion to do so.
In the morning we have to have our luggage out before
breakfast at 7am. Our complimentary bus to the Inverness bus/train station is
at 8:45am. They left us tip envelopes last night and I dropped ours in the box
at Reception this morning.. The suggestion was £7 pp/pd. We gave a bit more.
We’ve just entered the top lock of Muirtown Locks and we are
to dock in Muirtown, Inverness overnight so I guess I need to go out and have a
look around before I start packing. I hate short cruises!
We had to drop down through 4 locks to reach sea level. We
are at the Muirtown docks. We got off and walked to and through a couple of
shopping centers but they were furniture and grocery store types. We looked at
the groceries. We did not go back past one of the groceries where there was an
outdoor sports store. It was conveniently located for all the paddlers,
pedalers and hikers! We walked back up the locks. We saw Starfire, a sailboat
from Victoria BC Canada that we saw leaving Fort Augustus before us this
morning as it came out of the last lock behind us. I wonder if they sailed
across Loch Ness or just motored across. They have come a long way from home!
It started to rain some again, so we are back in our hot
cabin for a nap before dinner. I have packed. Clay says he’ll pack after
dinner. In any event, our time on Lord of the Glens is coming to an end.
At dinner, a kilted Brian enacted Robert Burns' Address to a Haggis. He had help from all the wait staff as well as Jerry from the kitchen. There was even a bagpipe. I hope Clay has photos somewhere, I'll keep looking and hope to find them and post some. In any event, the Haggis appetizer did not taste bad at all, but knowing something about what was in it, I just couldn't force myself to eat more than a couple of bites. I liked my meal and Clay finished mine and his, so it must have been OK.
A word about Scotch whisky. They sell it in grocery stores in Scotland. It must be a pantry staple. It was more expensive here than at home. It was even more expensive than at home in the airport duty free shops that we checked.
