Search to find Nessie!

Today was find the monster Nessie day! Loch Ness is only about half and hour away from Inverness so off we went! This loch is long and huge - the second biggest loch after Loch Lomond. it is also very deep as well. It reminds me of some of the fiords around Milford, with high cliffs on each side, but perhaps not as dramatic as it widens out. then it looks more like a small Lake Te Anau! the road is windy and goes down one side of it, so scenic view most of the way. We stopped first at the visitors centre, which is a lovely old buidling but inside it is all interactive videos etc to tell you the story of how the loch came into being (the top of scotland joined onto the top of the rest of the island and this is marked by lochs all the way along the join - like a long fault line. then glaciers carved out the lochs (they are actually lakes) and then as they melted they blocked up entrances so they turned from sea water to fresh water and into lakes. easy eh?? anyway that is why these ones are so deep and narrow. the centre also showed the history of the legend of nessie, with all the sightings etc, and then proceeded to explain most of them (hoaxes and sightings of logs etc). in the 60's and 70's there were scientifc searches resulting in the conclusion that there is no monster, (they had sonar equipped boats in a line across going down the lake from one end to the other)and even if there was there is not enough food to support such a monster! After this I spent up large in the Nessie shop! so cute - and then we went off to a cruise of the loch to go searching. It was freezing cold wind, but quite sunny. the water was a bit choppy and I loved it - Dave wasn't so keen tho. We stopped opp. Urqurhart Castle which is ruins of a castle on the loch, and you can walk all over them if you want to. It used to protect the loch during Clan warfare! On the way back we stopped at the Calodonian Canal which was made in the early 1900 so boats could go all the way from Inverness in the east to the west. it joins up the lochs so a boat doesnt need to stop. Quite amazing engineering in the day. Now you can sail across or even kayak! silly people! anyway here are our photos of Nessie hunting!