Fort Augustus- Highlands day trip

During the highlands day trip we stopped in a town called Fort Augustus, right beside Loch Ness. Loch Ness is 23 miles long and 745ft deep. It's the deepest loch in all of Europe. 

When we first stopped I went and took all my pictures in front of the loch, and took in the view it had to offer. Amazing view! Absolutely breathtaking! After this I walked along the loch leading into town. The best way to describe it is there is a very long canal that stretches along the highlands, going through towns and villages eventually leading to Loch Ness. 

So like I said there is a canal that runs through the town and any time boats want to go out towards the loch they have to go through the gates that open along the canal. There are 7 gates you have to get through! It would probably take you more than an hour from when the first gate opens first to when you finally get on the loch. The gates only open 1 at a time then they have to be closed because the canal goes downwards on its way out to the loch. So each gate gets opened and the boat goes through, then it gets closed and then you have to even out the water with the next gate that is about to open. (If none of that made sense hopefully the pictures I have will clear things up for you!) 

I walked around the town for a bit, looking at different things and such then it was back to the bus for the rest of the highland trip. 

Straight ahead is the loch, and this narrow water is part of the canal- behind the camera is the canal that goes through the town. 

Boat tours on Loch Ness 

Bad ass grandma out for a drive in the sickest car there is! 

The canal through town 

Gate opening to let boats through 

This couple just walked along above the canal pulling their boat. Instead of driving it, then stopping & waiting for the gates to open and close. 

Driving through the canal. 

Again pulling their boat through the gates. 

See how the water is much higher on the right side of the gate? And much lower on the left. 

Boats waiting for the water to fill up on the other side, and go down on their side. (Basically waiting for water to even out)

Water being filled in on left side from the water on the right side. 

Water going down on right side, and rising on left side 

Fort Augustus right in the centre of the highlands and beside Loch Ness 

Someone's front yard 

Now that's how you drink tea 

Random trails in Fort Augustus along the canal 

What used to be an old bridge across the canal. 

Church in Fort Augustus 

Typical rock walls in Scotland 

Highlands day trip

Woke up early this morning to go out on a highlands day trip. It's a beautiful sunny morning which is great considering it has been raining non stop lately. I left for where our tour was meeting up and away we went. 

We left Edinburgh heading for the highlands, and Loch Ness. Along the way we passed stirling and out the window I could see the stirling castle, and the William Wallace monument. We then came to the town of callander where me dad and mom had gone through on our trip. We stopped for coffees and then we were back on the road. 

Driving through the Scotland highlands was beyond beautiful! Such an amazig experience and I can cross that off my bucket list! We stopped every once and awhile to grab photos, and walk around on some of the paths. Our long stop wasn't until we got to Loch Ness. 

The town of fort Augustus is right beside Loch Ness so I roamed through the town, and along the loch for my time. Got plenty of pictures which is why I'm going to post the ones from fort Augustus in my next post, because I want to get all the highlands pictures in this one. 

Our tour guide name was linda, she was very nice and a very good guide for the day. She made a rule that whoever is last on the bus has to sing a chorus from a song. So right then and there I told myself to NEVER be the last one on. Yet sure enough at the second stop I got caught up taking pictures and realized I had been there a long time so I rush back to the bus and everyone is already on and laughing because they know it's my turn. Yay... 

I sang "green is the color" (rider song)  because in that moment I literally couldn't think of any other song in the entire world. 

The trip was such a great experience for me and I'm very happy I decided to go on it! 100% money well spent! On the way back we stopped on the side of the road to take pictures of the highland cows. Even though I have plenty of cows back home, these ones have much much more hair on there face and head. They just look a lot different from the ones back home.