Black Isle.

When M and I woke up this morning it was pouring with rain, although not a drop had leaked through our little tent! We had another great meal cooked by Chef M, and after the pricing war with the campsite owner yesterday we decided we'd move on for the night. Since it was bucketing down with rain, M and I took a drive round the Black Isle. First stop was Cromarty in the rain, where we walked on the beach and picked shells, and found a lovely cafe for a bowl of soup. We drove all round the coast through Jemimaville, Balblair and Cullicudden, then up the far side of the firth to Alness and Invergordon. It was really interesting to see the rigs in the bay, since M and I both work in the Oil and Gas industry, and the weather swung from beautiful sun to black clouds, with everything in between.

As the afternoon wore on, we decided that tomorrow we would hire a canoe and go paddling at Loch Ness. The hiring centre was in Inverness, so we drove back through some beautiful scenery and curtains upon curtains of heavy rain, to strap a large green canoe on top of the car. With the amount of rain falling, we would have been almost better sleeping in the canoe than the tent, so we checked into a hotel for the night in Inverness and had a really nice evening in the town. We had a couple of drinks in Johnny Fox's and Hootenanny (with live ceilidh music which was brilliant) before heading to bed for a good night's sleep.