We once again had breakfast at Carolyn's Cafe. A rather funny episode occurred--the four of us and two English women were the only ones in the restaurant. The talk turned to black pudding (blood sausage) and Mike said he had never eaten it. As he finished saying that, one of the English women stuck her fork with some black pudding on it into his mouth! We were all sitting there getting hysterical because the look on Mike's face was priceless! He finally swallowed it as he didn't want to spit it out on his plate (I'm not sure I wouldn't have done that!). When the laughter died down, Mike being the good sport he is said well it wasn't as bad as he thought it might be. After breakfast we checked again about Sandy's backpack--not to be found and then stopped at the pharmacy to look for shampoo for Sandy’s daughter, Sara--to no avail on that as well.  Then we went back to Lorne View to get our suitcases, check out and pack the car. Then it is time to try and find our way out of Oban. Once again we wandered around through those windy small streets, but we did finally get away from there. 

   Onward we drove toward Loch Ness, our destination today. Along the way we stopped on the Moors of Rannoch!  Rannoch Moor is 50 bleak square miles stretching off into the distance. According to Robert Louis Stevenson it should be called the Highland Desert. Oh my what an astounding place! We stopped at a lookout and there was a piper playing and the winds were whistling over the moors!! It was just what one thinks of when you read about the barren moors.

   From there we drove on into the Valley of Glencoe--this is where a group of British soldiers in 1692  led by a local Campbell man were hosted by the MacDonalds of the area. The MacDonalds who were hosting them had been slow in swearing allegiance to the British monarch, so in the early morning the British soldiers rose and massacred their hosts. This was a major violation of the rules of Highland hospitality. Along with killing 38 men, a hundred more villagers fled into a blizzard and 40 more died. As a result the valley is now known as the weeping glen.  

   We then stopped at the Glencoe visitor’s center for a picnic lunch.  We bought sandwiches and crisps (potato chips to us) and also tried the local soda called Irn-Bru. This soda is a bright orange color and is supposed to taste like bubble gum. To us it tasted sort of like a slightly bitter cream soda. Of course we also tried some delicious pastries for dessert.

   We drove on up the valley through Ft. William and up beside Loch Oich. Just before Ft. Augustus we saw our guest house which is in a small area called Aberchalder. As it was too early to check into our guest house we headed on up to Ft. Augustus.  Ft. Augustus was founded in the 1700s and is on the Caledonian Canal at the southern tip of Loch Ness. It was named for William Augustus, the Duke of Cumberland who was notorious for practicing ethnic cleansing on the Scottish clans. Ft. Augustus is one of three forts built by the British in an attempt to control the Highlanders (the other two are Ft. William just south of this one and Ft. Gordon on the North Sea).  

   We found the visitor's centre and parked in the lot there as it was free. We decided to walk over to see The Caledonian Canal locks.  The Caledonian Canal was built by Thomas Telford in the 1800s to run from Scotland's east to west coast connecting two lochs with 22 miles of man-made canal. At the time there were few roads and no railways so this would be the most economic way to travel. Sadly for him, by the time it was completed so were railways and the ships were now too large for the canal so it was a financial disaster. But it has been a tourist attraction since the late 1800s when Queen Victoria cruised the canal. So we walked through the small town and then watched several boats go through the locks.  

   By this time it is late enough that we can check into our guest house so back we go. The house is a 200 year old building that was once a post office and is run by Collin Gordon and his wife, Daniella. Across the road is an empty field that Collin said was where Bonnie Prince Charlie gathered the Highlanders when he began his campaign in Scotland.   Cool, huh?