Day 4 and Nessie

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We left the next morning for Drumnadrochit (pronounced Drum-na-drock-it, or just Drum to the locals). Day four was a hard one for hiking with several areas of moral killing switchbacks.
It was at some point in this day that I resorted to drinking whiskey straight out of the bottle. I think it helped.

When we reached Drum, after 14 miles, our B&B was a beautiful sight. The owner was super nice and fixed us some tea right away (because tea fixes everything). He then drove us "downtown" to the Loch Ness Discovery Centre.

This was as campy and silly as I had expected and the gift shop was larger than the exhibit itself. It was a series of videos that told the history of the legend of Nessie which more or less began in 500 something when St. Columba spotted a water monster causing some trouble and forbade it to leave the loch or hurt anyone. Since then, Nessie has been spotted over 1,000 times! Allegedly. I mean, she'd be pretty old by now for one thing. (many of the "sightings" have been proven hoaxes. Can you believe it?!)
Some believed that it was a plesiosarous left over from back in the day, but they died out 65 million years ago. Many expeditions have been led under and on top of the water to find Nessie and everyone has come up empty. Also, apparently there is not enough marine life in the loch to support the life of even one water monster.
I asked one of the employees if he thought there was anything in the water. "Oh there's something in the water alright." he replied laughing. "But probably not a monster." Even after walking the whole length of the loch, we didn't have one sighting or even a false alarm. Bummer.
Here is the "original" modern sighting of Nessie. Her first picture from 1933.

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