Locks.

What a perfect day we had today. M and I woke up a little cold, the temperature had really dropped last night from this week's summery days; so we headed to a camping shop in Inverness and bought a two-person sleeping bag for the next few nights. It was a bargain at £35 and is big enough for us to use our own individual sleeping bags inside it if it's reeeally cold. The plan for today had been to hire a canoe and paddle up Loch Ness, stopping in a pretty place to camp; however we'd heard too many reports of snow this weekend to go ahead with those plans - we weren't prepared for minus temperatures really. Instead, we took a lovely scenic drive along the banks of Loch Ness, stopping off at the lifeboat station (M volunteers for the RNLI in Aberdeen and other stations are always welcoming - such a great group of men and women), the Loch Ness Monster exhibition (definitely worth a look - what a lot of money they must have spent on it!) and finally reaching Fort Augustus at the end of the Loch.

We had researched a couple of nice hotels in the morning after hearing the snow reports and headed to the first on our list, The Lovat. It looked great from the outside, and M treated me to a night in a Master Suite; the bed was the biggest I've ever seen - it was so huge it was almost wider than it was long! The bathroom was beautiful too, with a huge double-ended bath and a lovely power-shower. Once we had dropped off our bags, M and I walked into the picturesque village of Fort Augustus, and ate venison burgers in a great little pub overlooking the canal's set of locks. Afterwards, we took a walk to the end of the Loch and looked out for Nessie, then past the hotel in the opposite direction to a beautiful little cemetery where we read the gravestones and enjoyed the silence and the sun.

As the sun finally started to drop, we walked back to the hotel and had a wonderful dinner worthy of a huge amount of praise; I wouldn't have been surprised if the place had had a Michlin star. I had pork with black pudding and caramelised vegetables, and M had lamb liver and fondant potatoes. It was just so beautifully cooked I can hardly describe it. We even managed to squeeze in a wonderful dessert and finished our evening in front of the log fire with a glass of brandy for M and Gravla for M, before falling into our soft bed for a lovely night's sleep :)