Our rest day yesterday was much needed, but once again, made it harder to get going again this morning! Even so, we set off in good time to go back up to Loch Tarff. It's hard to grasp that our adventure will all be over on Thursday!
We still had the rest of Saturday evening's hill to climb, a few miles of hard slog. Once we reached the top though, General Wade's Military Road stretched in front of us, and we had some long downhill stretches, eventually reaching the side of Loch Ness a few miles further on. The road continued into Inverness, where we had lunch by the River Ness. It was a beautiful day, as you'll see if you look at the photos below!
After lunch, we continued over the Kessock Bridge, which gave us great views over the Moray Firth to the east, and Beauly Firth to the west. We made good progress, and after an ice cream stop in Dingwall we climbed up to parallel the main road above the Cromarty Firth, and had even more fantastic views.
We didn't manage to get very far ahead of ourselves, but as we're staying tonight at the Youth Hostel in Inverness, the further we went, the longer the drive both this evening and tomorrow morning! We're all very tired, and energy levels aren't as good as they were last week. Prayers that the weather won't be quite so bad as expected on Wednesday would be greatly appreciated.
Urquart Castle across Loch Ness |
A view along the length of Loch Ness |
Lunchtime view - pedestrian bridge over the River Ness in Inverness |
Lunchtime view (2) - looking the other way along the river |
A view of Cromarty Firth |
Another view of Cromarty Firth - what looks like an insignificant bridge is actually the A9 crossing - the major road in NE Scotland |