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StevoTrip2006 Friday, September 29, 2006
Ness is More
As you might have gathered, my account is lagging beind where I'm up to, given I'm now in London and this thing is still in Scotland. After Fort William I headed up thorugh the "Great Glen" (the chain of Lochs tha runs diagonlly through the heart of Scotland) to Inverness. This took me along the shores of Loch Ness and past Castle Urquhart.  There was a time, not necessarily that long ago, when you could sort of take the Loch Ness Monster business kind of seriously. I remember a mid-80s edition of National Geographic that gave the whole business a little bit of credence. However, in recent years searches using fixed cameras, sonar sweeps, satellite imagery, thermal imagery, and aerial photography have failed to detect anybody gullible enough to believe in the monster. Given that, I think the Loch Ness monster tourism industry can be very glad it's placed firmly on the route from east coast to west coast, so people like me tend to stop by regardless. And yes, I did go to one of the Loch Ness tourist exhibitions, and I have to say that it was actually kind of fun. Even that, interestingly, basically took the sceptic's view, which really has to be the final nail in the coffin for Nessie believers. If your monster can't be taken seriously by roadside tourist stalls, it probably time to give up the whole business. The other big thing along the shores of Loch Ness was Castle Urquhart, which I had a good look around. It's not in fantastic shape but it has a great location and is very atmospheric. I would say more about it, but I'm afraid it was totally overshadowed by Dunnotar Castle, which I saw the next day. More about that the next time I update. One last bit of Nessieness: my favourite ever Nesie photograph, just because the monster looks so goofy. Apparently this is known as the "Muppet Photo."  |
Because a holiday doesn't actually happen if you don't spend it in internet cafes describing it to other people. www.flickr.com
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