Just a couple of days into my Haggis Adventures tour around Scotland we got a free day in Loch Ness/Fort Augustus. That means there was no set time to be on a bus, but just a whole day of freedom and blue skies. Beautiful.

Fort Augustus is a small, pretty town at one end of Loch Ness

I decided to have an easy day and take a boat ride out on the lake to learn more about the story and study of the Loch Ness monster. The boat I took is equipped with sonar so you can see images of what’s under you as you go, and they’ve seen some strange, but inconclusive, living things over the years.

Cruising on Loch Ness

In my last post I talked about how incredibly large Loch Ness is, but it’s still hard for me to get my head around just how deep it is. Measuring more than 750 feet deep in some places, you could put two Statues of Liberty on top of each other and still have 100 feet of water covering them.

Thanks to some clever window decals, everyone on the boat can find Nessie

On the boat ride they put it in perspective this way: 12 men have walked on the moon. Only two men have ever made it to the bottom of Loch Ness. Crazy, right? So who knows what could be down there that we haven’t discovered yet.

A series of these locks allow boats to get in and out of Loch Ness

Back at Morag’s Lodge in the evening we all got to see Kyle With the Smile – one of the hostel workers that Greg the Guide had been talking up since we first got on the bus. Personally, I think Greg built him up too much because I was a little disappointed, but several of the ladies on the tour were very happy with him. There was also live music in the bar provided by a local guy with a guitar and a spectacular voice.

But enough taking it easy. It’s time to get back on the bus!