We drove through the Scottish Highlands today, up to Loch Ness and Fort Augustus. The highlands are absolutely amazing! I'm sure there's
no place in the world quite like it. You can see the enormous mountains and valleys carved out by glaciers all those millions of years ago.
And to imagine the Scots living these thousands of years ago, (hell, even imaging them living there now) is truely amazing.
We made a number of stops so I could take pictures (I was driving today, so I couldn't really takes pictures from a moving car), so I've
got plenty of panarama shots to stitch together when I get home! We also stopped off at this little road-side shop were there was a piper
playing the bagpipes, in the highlands rain (which it seems to do all the time - it's not really like normal rain, but it's just a fine
mist which always seems to be falling). Poor fellow!
It wasn't an exceptionally long drive or anything, and once we arrived in Fort Augustus, my mum and I went for a walk along the Canelonian Canal. This canal with built in 1803-1823, and there are a number of "locks" running up. The water level in each lock is 8 feet higher than the water level in the one before it. They (and the canals between some of the other lochs) were built to create a route for ships between Inverness in the north east, and Atlantic Ocean in the west (so ships didn't have to make the treacherous journey around the north of Scotland).
We managed to catch the end of a lock operation (which apparently takes quite a while). Basically what happens is the boat goes into the
first lock, and they close the gates. The sluice opens, which evens out the water level between this lock and the next, then they open
the next gate. The boat goes through, and the close the gate behind it. The process continues until they're at the top (or bottom) of
the locks. It's actually quite simple when you think about it, there's no need for any water pumps or anything - it all works by gravity,
the only moving parts are the hydrolics for the gates and sluices (and when originally made, it would have all been man-powered).
We had dinner at a hotel here, and it was delicious! Our waitresses were a couple of New Zealand girls, so it was good to hear a familiar accent for a change :)