Loch Ness

After a good night's rest, we were ready to tackle the job of driving in Scotland again. Our hostess gave us one good tip: if you are not sure which road to take at the roundabout, just circle it again. Roundabouts here may have as many as 4 or 5 roads shooting off in different directions, and you will have approximately 5 seconds to look at the sign and decide which one you need to take. God help you if you are in the wrong lane. Yes, some of their roundabouts have 2 or 3 lanes. The lane on the far left is the one you want to be in if you are taking the first left off the roundabout. If you are going straight, you will need to be in the middle or far right lane, and so on.
So we decided to get on the A9 and head toward Inverness. This is a very narrow, at times only one lane, road that goes right down the southern coast of Loch Ness. There are occasionally "passing places" on the side of the road where you can pull over when there is someone coming from the other way and you need to pass. Believe it or not we passed a couple of semi trucks this way! But the scenery was so beautiful it was almost worth the terror. We stopped along the way to have a picnic lunch and enjoy the view.

Loch (Scottish word meaning lake)Ness is a very long narrow lake that runs essentially north-south. Each time we stopped to take in the beauty of the place, we scanned the lake for any unusual creatures.

Here we stopped again and once again could not see any unusual lake creatures.

The water was unusually placid and calm today, so we kept a sharp eye out for anything that might pop up out of the water to look back at us.

Finally! We spotted them! The Loch Ness Mallards!