Day 6 of Batty Tour tested the endurance, the willpower, and the amount of enthusiasm our already tired brains could manage to . Day 5 was a day jam-packed with ooo's and ahhh's even yippie's(as one jumped off one of the cliffs into the freezing water), so Day 6 had to live up to the previous day's awesomeness.
And without any doubts, it did! Waking up once again and getting into the transport only to experience a rather long and treacherous ride(by our beloved spaniard) drenched our fading breakfast energy immensely, nonetheless a long awaited press of the brakes by the spaniard not only signalled an opening door, but fresh air and a wee walk. Upon the wee walk we came across a lock at Fort Augustus(a lock being the system of transportation which is used through levelling water at certain heights solely to get boats through the town's river). It was an amazing sight indeed and it had supplied us with renewed hope and vigour for the day to come.

Back into the transport we went and "RAFA"(short for Rafael) - our esteemed driver - got us onto the road again. The break we experienced, eating the lunch we'd received earlier got us into full gear. Next Stop: the Urquhart Castle! Beautiful and Majestic was the short film which we'd seen before even seeing the actual castle. After the film had finished the curtains which had been tightly closed together had opened, the lights turned on and... The Magnificent Castle lay surrounded by the Loch Ness River. It lay ruined and its corners incongruent. We enjoyed a few moments of fame as we positioned ourselves near the hall of the castle to construct a loch ness monster lookalike - while the tourists exiting and entering the castle were amazed by the relentless attempt we had made at constructing the lookalike.

After much sightseeing of the loch ness river - at the top of the castle - came to an abrupt end, we were on the road once again! Now, to Inverness! As we entered Inverness, we were told to return to the transport after an hour and a half, because we were allowed to go shopping for whatever we desired at nearby shopping centres at the various malls in Inverness. It was amazing! The stores were quite different to the ones at home. I even hoped to see a Woolworths store there, but I saw a KFC...ATLEAST!!! We made a stop at clothing stores and shoe stores. Obviously experiencing a bit of shock by the shoes which were on display at one of the stores made us stop, we decided to enter that very store. The sales on the shoes gave us even more reason to go and purchase one or two pairs, but attempts at converting the prices of the shoes to rands sank our hearts incredibly!! We felt extremely sombre, but the thought of being on this tour consoled us because we knew that we'd spend a pound or even 60 pounds to get what we desired most.

Our free time had expired and we returned to the transport. Arrived back at Sgorans Lodge quite quickly, through the many shortcuts our RAFA had taken. WHAT A DAY!


by Laud-Beau