Highland cow

Today we went in search of Nessie in Loch Ness, or so a German tourist thought! We stopped off at the medieval ruins of Urquhart Castle in Drumnadrochit. Toured the castle, taking photos (most photos featuring tourists!) and then walked down to a small beach area within the grounds which had a lovely view over Loch Ness and the surrounding mountains. It was here that we met the young German couple who presumed we were looking for the Loch Ness monster! As part of the girl's university course, she was doing a paper on people's views on Nessie. It did seem that she thought the myth was real!

My lovely son, Bobby, nominated me for the ASL ice bucket challenge. So, as I don't like to do things by halves, decided that I wasn't going to do it in the garden as most people do, but would do it in Loch Ness! We took a change of clothes, towel and washing-up bowl for the challenge. However, the castle was too busy, so we stopped off at a tourist information office and the very helpful lady told us about an area where we could access the beach by the loch. We found the spot and, luckily had to walk down steps to reach it, so couldn't be seen from the road and only a couple of other people were there. Shoes and socks off - wadded into the loch and proceeded to dunk a freezing bowl of loch water over my head! Of course, I had to nominate Matthew and he was a great sport and also took the challenge by Loch Ness.

We have been wanting to take some photos of the Highlands cattle ever since we arrived and today, on the way to the castle, we spotted a field with five of these cows in. Pulled in and took a few shots of these fabulous creatures. I chose this particular shot as I liked the look he was giving me!

The other shot, taken after my dunking, that I was considering blipping is a long exposure of the Loch and surrounding mountains and can be seen here.