![\"IMG_20160718_110952415\"](\"https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/IMG_20160718_110952415.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThis image, I think, illustrates why I didn’t take many pictures from the window of the bus, despite having a window seat. First stop of actual significance, because a roadside cafe with a gift shop doesn’t qualify, was Glencoe<\/a>, site of some of the worst manners shown by a guest in recorded history.<\/p>\n Nowadays it’s the site of some skilled, daring, and at times ambitious<\/em> tour bus parking. There were a\u00a0lot<\/strong> of tour buses, plus regular tourists in regular vehicles. Early attempt. Foreboding clouds, impressive hills. OK, so I just zoomed in on the phone before taking this one. A sea of clouds, above a sea of tourists. The tour guide, I should mention, did talk about\u00a0why<\/em> we were stopping here, why it was important, and so on. Looks a lot like chunks of the South Island though, doesn’t it?<\/p>\n Possibly\u00a0the best themed WiFi symbol ever, with added Man-In-Kilt in the background.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Next was Loch Ness. Some folk were dropped off at Urquart Castle<\/a>, to explore the ruins & be collected later, while the rest of us went on ahead to catch the ferry which went back\u00a0up<\/em> the loch to said castle. There was a substantial covered & enclosed area on the boat, with obligatory coffee vending setup. I should note that I do\u00a0not<\/strong> put much faith in the argument that an insurance company wouldn’t have covered a bunch of\u00a0triathletes competing in Loch Ness for a million pounds\u00a0against ‘monster attacks’ unless they believed there was something there.\u00a0Rather, I think they could barely keep the grins from their faces as they took the premiums, and were maybe wondering about offering Sasquatch coverage too.<\/em><\/p>\n Eventually, we made it to the castle, or the remains thereof, and picked up the folks we’d dropped off.
\nAnd also why I didn’t need sunblock.
\nI was hoping it’d be doing this while the Loch Ness part of the trip, for maximum spooky, but that didn’t happen.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nAlso a piper, who might<\/em> be in that scrum behind me.
\nThis probably counts as a ‘photographing photographers’ selfie, if I’m keeping track; Not sure if that’s better or worse than the non-selfie version, to be honest.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nAs such, taking a photo without a bus or selfie stick in it took some doing.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nLooks like I’m trying to product-place the tour company, but I’m pretty happy with how the landscape came out.
\n(this is, incidentally, the bus I was on, or at least part of it)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nStill kind of looks like a car ad.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nI like the clouds though.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nI mean, I could crop it, but I find the cluster of people, cameras, cars, and cameras on sticks to be sort of funny.<\/p>\n
\nI’d love to claim that it felt sort of dark and foreboding, but … that’s just the landscape and the weather.
\nSorry.<\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nMore accurately, due to a slightly delayed start and some time spent stuck behind a truck or two, next up was an accelerator & brake mad dash, along very winding roads carved into hills, in a very large bus, to make the Loch Ness Ferry sailing.
\nIt was a lurchy experience.<\/p>\n
\nI’d opted for the boat ride option when the weather was frankly a bit shitter, back at Glencoe.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nIt was also very loud; Engines + Tourist Commentary + Multiple Small Children Who Were, Frankly, Over This.
\nI ran away to the upper deck, where there was rain of a sparse but stingingly cold nature, and much fewer sources of noise.
\nAlso people who were a bit more interested in seeing the Loch itself.<\/p>\n
\n(It’d have been much more atmospheric if the mist & cloud had hung around at low level, but such is life)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n