As the Wind Blows

It was about this point in the trip where I realised that I have a smart phone; a smart phone with Google Maps. Who needs ask for directions to small unknown streets when they have a smart phone with Google Maps? Thank God for that realisation otherwise we would have never found our accommodation which was on a small street in the large city of Edinburgh.  Booking agencies should really include maps and directions to where they are located because not everyone catches taxis on holidays. This includes one day tours agencies which are spontaneously booked at 11pm the previous night to save people from running around the streets of Edinburgh trying to find the place the bus leaves from. I’m so grateful for the invention of mobile phones. Needless to say that we did manage to catch the bus otherwise I would not take up the next five minutes of your time writing about The Scottish Highland and Loch Ness.

The difference between the Scottish lowlands and the Scottish highlands, apart from the terrain, is that men wear kilts in the highlands and pants in the highlands. Which makes no sense since the highlands are further up north which means it’s a lot colder so technically they should be wearing pants. This was one of the many flaws our guide pointed out were in Braveheart as the main character was actually from the lowlands, but in the movie he wears a kilt. In terms of terrain, the lowlands look like mountains in Australia whereas in the highlands the mountains are well, a lot higher.

Being one of the three sunny days in the year in Edinburgh (and it really was a scorcher!) we did end up seeing a lot further out than one normally sees, and the views were amazing! The thing that I’ll remember most is how different the air smelt up in the highlands. I’ve never smelt anything like it, so I’m assuming that how fresh air is meant to be. The downside to the sunny day was that the mysterious feel to Loch Ness was lost as the loch looked like an incredibly pretty inland body of water.

I went to Loch Ness not believing in the monster, but after our boat ride on the loch with the pirate like captain and his stories, I came away believing in the possibility. The thing that convinced me the most (apart from seeing movements on the sonar screen before hand), was when the captain told us that no trace of the skeletons of dead fish ever showed up on their screens, which implies that the fish are being eaten, but they don’t know by what. The black peat in the water hides Nessie and her family quite well which is probably the reason that no-one’s been able to dive in there and confirm its existence with 100% accuracy. He did say the last sighting on the lake was a week before, but I’m sure they say that to all the tourists.

I was never one for tours, but I did enjoy this guided day trip. Apart from not having to worry about where we were going and hence getting lost, I could sit back, relax and learn to appreciate (or not appreciate in the case of the pine trees planted for logging purposes) the Scottish Highlands.