Scotland

July 1997.  High on our "to do" list was to transit the Caledonian Canal in Scotland.  One interesting feature of the Canal was Loch Ness.   Lori was probably more excited about that than Carl, but, hey, if we happen to see "something" on the way through--how cool!  The main difference would be--Lori would have the camera ready just in case.  We hung out in Oban until we were ready to start our transit.  We spent 7 days making our way through the locks, stopping at Fort Augustus, anchoring in Lock Ness and near Uhrquardt castle, and others.  We debated if we should spend the winter here or carry on to Norway.  In the end, we kept going.  Norway was calling us.   

Map of the Caledonian Canal in Scotland. We traveled from Fort William to Inverness

Lori handling lines while making our way through the locks at Fort Augustus.

Typical tie up in the Canal

We found the Canal had great amenities and was secure.  The Canal had 29 locks, (8 in one place called Neptune's Staircase), 8 aquaducts, and 10 bridges.  We shared some locks with other boats and some we went alone.  We could easily have spent more than the seven days we took to make the transit.  

Left:  locking up.  The black doors at the bow end of Bijou, will open and let us out when the lock is full of water.

Above:  a full lock.  Once the gates open, the boats will exit.  One of the lochs (like a lake) is off in the distance.

Typical pontoon stop-off in the Canal zone. Off in the distance is Loch Ness. We anchored in the Loch in hopes of grabbing a picture of --yes--Nessy, the Loch Ness Monster. Camera at the ready, but no joy. Not even a ripple.

Uhrquardt Castle.  We anchored nearby, thinking we might get the chance to roam around the grounds.  The number of tourists we saw gave us a clue that it was probably going to be an expensive roam.  It was, so we passed.