Loch Mess

Today is the biggest, most frustrating, completely miserable , heartbreaking disappointment of my entire trip!  Maybe that’s too excessive, let me rephrase it…

Today is the biggest, most frustrating, completely miserable , heartbreaking disappointment of my entire trip, thus far.

My plans for this part of Scotland included: seeing a distillery, hiking in the area and seeing and spending time at Loch Ness and exploring Urquhart Castle and possibly another castle or two.

One out of four isn’t good.

I will take partial blame for my total disappointment.

1. I guess I shouldn’t have gotten my hopes up quite so much.

2. I should have mentioned in no uncertain term and with as much politeness as I can muster what I wanted to do while in the area.

3. I should have not acquiesced when my Aunt and Uncle suggested (well, more like insisted) I see someone about my toe – it is getting better and it will just take time and limping in order to sort it out. 

But failing to do any of the above led to today’s waist of time – I know I am being harsh, I know, in the grand scheme of things it isn’t that critical, or that dismal, but still it was disappointing.

Since I had acquiesced, my Uncle managed to make an appointment  for me to see his Chiropodist over her lunch hour at 1PM which cut our day in half an limited, a bit, what we did for the day.

Our morning was spent in a town called Findhorn – a place recommended by my Uncle as “quite interesting” – as it arose in the 60’s as a commune and still remains more or less a communal town today, filled with a variety of odd buildings made out of odd materials owned by people from all walks of life and from all financial levels.  By the end of our visit we were all rather nonplussed by the appeal and headed back to the B&B.

One thing you don’t want a medical professional to do when they see whatever part of your anatomy they specialize in is to 1. Seem shocked/surprised, 2. Cringe, or 3. Say something like “Och, that is bad”.   I think the Chiropodist did all three when she saw my toe.

Patched up and sent away with a second set of  bandages my Uncle and I got back to the B&B , picked up the others and headed out to Loch Ness.  Our plan was to go down the east  side of the lake (the one less travelled and therefore the nicer drive, given less traffic and tourists)  see the lake (and I thought Urquhart Castle all via another castle).

As we sped along with my Uncle at the wheel his explained, if we go via Cawdor Castle we won’t get home until rather late – so we all agreed to forgo the castle.

As we sped along down the east side of Loch Ness I wondered, are we going to stop anywhere and actually look at the lake?  Since you can’t actually see the lake from the road due to the trees (had it been earlier in the year, my Uncle explained, there would have been less foliage and you could see more of the lake). 

We did stop at one point along the Loch (at my request) and hopped out to snap a few pictures, before piling back in again and heading off for what turned out to be our second and (to my UTTER DISAPOINTMENT) last stop at Fort Agustus. Fort Agustus lies at the bottom i.e. southern tip (more or less) of Loch Ness and has a series of locks that allow boats to pass from the lower Loch Ness to the higher river.

Wandering about for a bit and then finding the ice cream shop closed, we piled back in the car for my much anticipated trip up the “touristy” side of the Loch and Urquhart Castle.

As we neared the turn off to Urquhart Castle I hear my Uncle say – that’s Urquhart Castle;  it costs a fortune to look around and it’s a lot to pay to see a pile of rocks.  And with that, the turnoff to the Castle blew past and I sat dumbstruck as my chance to see Urqart Castle disappeared in the rear view mirror.

Fighting to maintain my composure in the honoured position in the front passenger seat – I mumbled (whilst trying not to burst into tears) – is there no access down to the Loch? “Not really” was the answer I remember – possibly not those exact words, but that was the certainly the impression I was left with.  And my  disappointment was complete, absolute and unequivocal and I spent the rest of the ride trying not to burst into tears.

This is Loch Ness and the pile of rocks on the far shore is Urquhart Castle and THIS is as close as I got to them.