driving driving driving south in Scotland
We drove down the length of Skye, which was quite pretty, and took the ferry across back to mainland Scotland. There was more driving through hills & mountains & past lochs & rivers.
Every place we drove through, Mum seemed to have a story about Bonnie Prince Charlie, and to paraphrase Mr Bennett in Pride & Prejudice, "oh that he had sprained his ankle in the first battle".
We stopped in the middle of the day @ Glenfinnan, something to do with BPC again, but my interest suddenly spiked when the guidebook mentioned that this had been a Harry Potter filming location. I left Mum to explore ancient monuments & I went trekking across the hills to the big viaduct that the Hogwarts Express crosses. It was quite an energetic yet squelchy walk - the Scottish hillsides are deceptively soggy. Just as I was at the top looking down on the viaduct, the tourist steam-train that uses the route came past, so that made for some nice pics.
As we drove south the weather kept changing - it was rather misty on Skye, but then quite warm in the middle of the day, but then it started to absolutely pour with rain as we drove the length of Loch Lomond.
We're staying in a fabulous hostel that used to be a tobacco merchant's manor house - lovely stone façade, impressive stairs and halls inside, and views down to the Loch.
