HID VAC

A New Year and another walk. Some of it we had done before but the bit we hadn't done  was well worth doing this time.

We all met up in Drumnadrochit, which translates as the Ridge of the Bridge from Gaelic.

It had been pretty snowy, but it was beginning to melt, but it was still nice to look at.

Here we are setting off from the car park, or perhaps we were just going round the bend.

There was blue sky about and the promise of a reasonable day ahead.

Pam's second favourite kind of cow - behind a fence. She had her favourite kind of cow, slightly well done on a meal out the Friday before.

Not a sign we like to see on Dinosaur walks, but luckily for most of us we only really have the one gear - and it was the right one here.

Here we are engaging low gear and taking the hill in our stride.

Of course, if you go up a hill, there is always a view back down and here is a mist shrouded Drumnadrochit.

There was less snow cover in among the trees, but it was still uphill.

It was actually a bit of a scary looking wood.

In fact, if you look closely, you can see the apparently dead tree make a grab for Robin's arm!

This was actually where Houdini had practised before going to the Niagara Falls with a barrel. Of course, he never did go over the falls inside one in the end.This remarkable feat was first successfully (as in survived) achieved by a woman in 1901. Oddly, when Houdini was filming at Niagara Falls when he was supposedly going to do the barrel thing in 1921, the funeral took place of the successful barrel woman, Annie Edson Taylor. 
Even more remarkably, she was 63 when she undertook this feat, so there is still hope for some of us at least.

Meanwhile we had our own troubles trying to escape from the tethers of a fairly inanimate fence - some more elegantly than others.

Robin was so pleased to achieve this daredevil stunt that he ran to the top of the hill to celebrate.

Soon we were crossing the snow fields.

From here we could see Loch Ness.

Just by the roadside was a memorial to a faithful friend.

Unfortunately it is impossible to read the name of the friend or to be sure when they lived - 1901 to 1913 is my best guess. I have assumed the friend was a dog, but perhaps it was a person and they were only friends for 12 years.

Looking back down the road towards the Loch.

Then it was downhill, to the Divach Falls. Apparently they are pronounced Jeevach.

Jee, but they are certainly spectacular.

The falls are about 100 feet high and pretty sheer.

The house at the top of the falls and barely visible in the photos, was owned by Queen Victoria's favourite artist, John Phillips and his painting of the falls still hangs in Buckingham Palace. Loads of famous people came to visit the Lodge and the falls, including painters such as Sir John Everett Millais and writers like J M Barrie and Anthony Trollope and even the Polar explorer Robert Falcon Scott.

Luckily a real photographer came along and took a photo of us all.

Back up from the falls and onto the road towards Drum and another fine view of the Loch.

Mysterious animals have criss-crossed the slopes with a tracery of footprints stitching across the canvas of the fields.

Well, probably it was just sheep.

Another roadside sign - this one a milestone. If you look closely at the foot of the stone on the left, you can see the wee black jobby I managed to brush with my finger while clearing away the leaves to make the photo clearer!!

Luckily Sharon has a little antibacterial spray in her rucksack!

At the Coiltie Bridge, Sharon nearly fell for me telling her that this was a new style of salmon ladder. In reality, it is for hedgehogs that might have fallen from the bridge parapet.

Lunch time and Maureen and Sharon took advantage of my handy, silver, foldable picnic rug.

Jacque puts Jimmy in a head lock to express her disappointment at the lunch that he had provided.

The girls folding up my picnic rug in the manner of their grannies.

These are Runes in the Elder Futhark system of Proto-Norse writing. This was widely in use by the Norse people prior to and during the Viking era, from the 2nd to 11th Centuries. If only I could tell you what they mean.

However, Google tells me that groups of Runes mean more than the Runic symbols mean individually. Essentially direct translation of individual runes is nonsense as you can see if you read the next bit and have not yet lost the will to live.

So the first 3 Runes translate literally as The Gods need the Day - I think.

The next 5 mean the horse needs the God Tiwaz, the horse ride.

I expect that really it means this is a bridleway to be used during the day.

Not long after the runic experience we came across this buzzard sitting on a fence post. It looks like a young male as they are smaller than the females.

He certainly was a bit disinterested in us, sitting for some time before deciding to glide off down the fence line.

Buzzards are not hawks, which is a pity, because that would have given me a nice link from the runes. In Norse mythology there is a hawk that sits between the eyes of the Eagle at the top of the world.

Juvenile Buzzards have a streaked breast rather than the barred chest of adult birds.

After leaving the Buzzard behind we climbed up to Craigmonie, from where you get a fabulous view over Drumnadrochit and on to Loch Ness.

Craigmonie was either named after the famous Inverness hotel or the Viking Prince Monie.

It was once part of the grounds of Balmacaan House and the large trees around the crag, including the 2 Wellingtonia we saw, were planted by the estate about 200 years ago. These trees are amongst the largest of their kind in Britain. Indeed, the big one we thought of linking hands around has the 4th largest girth in the country at over 10 metres - at least according to the website Redwood World.

So, Viking runes, a nearly Viking hawk/buzzard and a Viking prince - time for a Danish pastry.

After a quick history lesson from Robin it was off down the hill to our tea and cakes venue, the Ness Deli.

Some were keener than others to get to the sticky cakes and set off at a blistering pace, leaving the more demure of our number to take their time.

Before we got to the cars, we saw this poster advertising a previous local appearance by Mark Steel, who is apparently a comedian.

Now some thought he had heard of me and ripped off my Do you know who I am? line. In fact, he was actually born on the same date as me - the 4th of July, but there the similarity ends. His website suggests that he is actually funny.

However, the name for his tour could surely become our motto as we get older.

So the sun sets on another fine Dinosaur adventure.

Thanks to Susan and Robin for discovering and testing the walk and for finding the Ness Deli with its wonderful cakes and refreshments.