Loch Ness and Jaxon's Birthday

Before we left for Scotland, we asked each of the kids what was one thing they wanted to do. Skye, of course, wanted to go to the Isle of Skye. Jaxon wanted to see Loch Ness. Since we happend to be in Scotland on his birthday, we figured it would be a great time to take a tour. We borded a tour bus about 8 in the morning for what ended up being a really long day. It was our first trip into the Highlands and all I can say is wow. The beauty of the land is stunning. Beautiful land, however, seems to mean windy windy roads, like little snakes made a path and they decided to pave over it. We stopped for a short break in a small town called Pitlochry before continuing on the Loch Ness. There isn't much to say about Pitlochry other then it is very quaint and they have something called a fish ladder there. It seems to help the fish move from the lower lochs up to the higher. It consists of 34 seperate pools each with an opening about 3 feet below water level which allows the fish to swim up stream. There are a couple of larger pools where they can rest before continuing their journey. After about 30 minutes in Pitlochry, we borded the bus and headed North. It was a cold rainy day to be heading out on the Loch but we were all excited none the less. (we had hopes of seeing Nessie) Skye and I chose to stay inside the boat while Jax and Josh headed outside to see the view unobstructed.
To be very honest, the Loch cruise was a bit of a let down. We went out for 30 minutes and back for 30 minutes. Not much time to get a chance of seeing anything but wild mountain goats on the hillside and lots of dark black water. That being said, you have to know that Loch Ness is the second largest loch in Scotland measuring over 21 square miles and over 754 feet deep. It would be ambitious to think we would see something in a body of water so large.

The crew of our Loch cruise boat have all been working on Loch Ness a minimum of 10 years and one fella for over 23 years. They all claim to have seen things on the Loch. The photo above is a dopplar of 2 large unidentified underwater objects that were moving free, of their own accord, and at different speeds. (meaning they changed speed on more then one occasion) All of the crew feel that to think there is one "Nessie" is foolish. All the Loch's in Scotland are connected, so it is a common thought that whatever is in Loch Ness has had the ability to move
freely from the Loch to the sea and back giving it the chance to mate and reproduce and live in relative saftey. It was very interesting to listen to the crew talk about all their experiences, but you can't help but be a little skeptical. They all claim to have photographic proof but have all refused to sell it. They claim it would damage the Loch to have people up here looking for the creatures. Makes some sense.......

We finished up our cruise and headed back toward Edinburgh with a small stop to see Hamish the Hairy Cow - or Heery Coo as it is pronounced in Scotland. I have put up a picture of his bride and their new baby. It will give you an idea of the size and make you stop and wonder if Beevo would like to meet his Scottish cousins!