Black water

Today we set sail for Loch Ness.  On the way we passed a skate park and ice rink (curling!) and stopped to walk in the woods by a canal along the River Ness, which runs too swiftly to be useful for transport, ergo the canal.  A mallard duck, apparently familiar with humans carrying bread, landed and waddled right up to us, but we left her disappointed.  The trees sport fuzzy fringes of lichen, which one woman said will only grow in clean air.  Yesterday by the distillery they pointed out that all of the trees were black due to a fungus that loves the alcohol-covered bark.  The water in the canal and the Ness is very clear, but brown as tea, due to the peat it runs through to get there.  There are yellow flowering gorse bushes everywhere, and we got close enough to know why you don't want to fall into one.  Covered with thorns.

After parking at the wrong dock, we got to the right one for a one-way trip to Urquhart Castle and headed down the canal that crosses the entire country, joining several lochs.  The wind was ferocious, and Loch Ness was full of whitecaps and what looked like 6 foot waves.  The water is black and opaque - as opaque as black coffee, but darker.  Like liquid onyx.  Among the offerings in the little onboard food stall was hot chocolate with whiskey, because Scotland.

We docked at the castle and rambled around the ruins, but the wind was even more fierce, knocking me down at one point, and most of us retreated to the gift shop to reattach our hair.  Our gluten-free lunch at an Italian restaurant was good - flatbread with olives, proscuitto, salami, and shaved Parmesan to start, some kind of pasta with no discernable sauce, but with bacon, mushrooms, and various unknown chunks, and very good gelato.  I even had a bottle of Scotland's second favorite drink, Irn Bru, a soda with a taste something like bubble gum but not quite describable.  No working bathrooms, but otherwise great, with a view of the Ness.  The afternoon consisted of a trip to Culloden battlefield, which most of us were not that interested in, and a brief stop at a Tesco grocery store to look at their selection of gluten-free stuff.  They must have thought we were insane, the squealing that went on.  I resisted the urge to buy crunchy things.  I found this at the battlefield but did not buy it:

Och aye, I could knit my ain wee William Wallace, or a sheep, or a pint of Guinness.

Not many pictures today because the internet is slow.  Back on the bus for dinner in a little while, but I might take a walk to burn off all of this food.  We have been collectively looking for birds to identify, but we see only a few types other than sea birds, and can hear but not see many others.  Tomorrow we check out and head to Glasgow and I think a visit to a woolen mill.  I wonder if I can find local (and affordable) cashmere?