Inverness; Sunday, 28 March, 2004

I had already pre-booked myself onto an all-day tour of Loch Ness and the surrounding areas so Sunday was pretty well mapped out for me. After a leisurely breakfast and checking out from the hotel, I wandered down to the Tourist Information Centre to pick up the tour bus.

The tour itself is really well presented in a funny yet informative fashion. The tour only covers about a 20 mile route so there is lots of time to talk about the area and lots of photo stops, the first being by the Ness Islands where I had been the previous evening! Next stop was at the last Lock on the Caledonian canal before it enters the River Ness and then into Loch Ness then it was on to the road that runs by the side of the Loch and a photo stop just after the start/end of the Loch.

After that there was a brief stop to buy tasteful and imaginative quality souvenirs (i.e. a stuffed Nessie and chocolate highlands cows!) and then a quick video (in the bus - it was all very high-tech!) background to some of the sightings of the elusive beastie and some of the hoaxes that they myth has sported.

Then it was onto the Loch Ness 2000 exhibition. Through several rooms of audio visual exhibitions it tries to tell the story of Loch Ness from how it was formed to the mysteries of Nessie. Of all the explanation's for it's sighting my money is on too much Whiskey!!

From there it was onto an ancient burial chamber out in the wilds before coming back to Urqhart castle and the point at which the bus part of the tour ended. After spending 90 minutes looking round the castle it was time to get a boat back along Loch Ness, up the River Ness and onto the Caledonian Canal back into Inverness.

There was just enough time, by the time I got back to Inverness for a quick dinner and then it was time to re-board the sleeper for its long journey back south.