Loch Ness (2 August)

Today was pretty low-key, which is nice because we’re all tired. I went for an awesome run this morning along the River Ness. I went 6 miles, the longest I’ve gotten to run since I’ve been here.

Once we left the hostel, we drove along Loch Ness. Loch means lake in Scottish. And Loch Ness is a famous, mysterious lake. It’s one of the deepest in Europe and it holds more water than any other lake in Europe. If you look on a map, you see that it’s long and skinny. But since it’s on a fault line it’s really really deep, which adds to the mystery. Supposedly the Loch Ness Monster, endearingly named Nessie, lurks within the deepest part of the lake, close to Inverness. I didn’t see Nessie in the lake, but I sure saw many representations of her all over the touristy towns we were in!

Scary monster!

Me with the Andersons

Chrisse and I outside of our hostel in Fort William

Mountains outside of Fort William--you really can't capture how awesome they are.

We drove down the lake and stopped a few times to take in the view. We paused at a castle that was built along the lake as well. Then we headed into Fort William where we spent most of the afternoon. At 5:30 I met up with some of our group because we were organizing a group dinner. We made taco salad; it’s so much more sensible to make it all together rather than each of us scrounging together our individual meals. We had so much more food for so much less money. It was so so so so delicious. Some of the girls also purchased things to make banana boats for dessert. Needless to say, we all ate well tonight.

Tomorrow we head back toward Edinburgh, where we’ll stay the last few nights. I’m sad to leave the Scottish Highlands because it really is beautiful here. One more thing you might be interested to know about is the Highland Coo—the type of cattle that is up here in Scotland. Because it’s a cooler area, the cows have long shaggy hair and huge horns. They are really adorable. Google it.