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NC500 - Dolpin Spirit and the Drive around Loch Ness (Day 10)

We had an early start on day 10 of our adventures as we booked to go and ride the Dolphin Spirit Cruise. We were extremely hopeful to catch a glimpse of some wildlife, but unfortunately we were not so lucky. However, this was a theme for the holiday. We had missed out on other wildlife cruises in the trip too because we were a little outside of the tourist seasons. The Dolphin Spirit cruise is a 90-minute boat trip out onto the Moray Firth. Although the most we caught a glimpse of was some more birds, I would still say it was worth our time. There is something about being sat on a boat with the most special person that is quite heart-warming. Especially, if you are slowly turning into a ice cube! Our only warning is to be careful when driving to the location as your satnav will try and take you somewhere else!



Next on our list was the Loch Ness Centre and Exhibition. For anyone that likes to learn about the history and myths of Loch Ness, this is a must see. The exhibit explains the myths of the Loch Ness Monster, and the history of how the Loch came to be. And who would have thought that if the original ‘Scotland’, had never collided with ‘England’ then the beauty that is Loch Ness would never have been.

For the rest of our day, I wanted to drive the whole way around Loch Ness and see what the different places had to offer. You can see the stunning views in the photos. We did intend on going into Urquhart Castle up close and personal, but as we had seen this from the Loch, and we had already spent quite a lot on our wedding and honeymoon, we opted against this. Maybe next time we venture north! We then headed South towards Fort Augustus. This was somewhere I wanted to stop, but due to the busy-ness in the area, again we opted to avoid this. I am not one for crowds, and it seemed a popular spot for tourists. Driving by you can see why, it does have some spectacular views. We then headed up the other side of the Loch along the B862. Driving this route takes you a little out from the Loch Ness but the views of the smaller Lochs is still something we would recommend seeing. 



Ten miles north, we took the B852 to stop off at the Falls of Foyers, as Nicole had read that the waterfalls here were worth a quite visit. As I was extremely tired, I was not looking forward to the very steep trek back up from the bottom viewpoint butt we didn’t need to go all the way down as there was a viewpoint in the middle. The falls were a little disappointing to say the least, as you can see. It was only a trickle! But maybe that was just due to the weather picking up and there being very little rain the week before we viewed the falls. 

We then continued along this road, with the route taking us back close to Loch Ness. We would recommend taking this route if you wanted to drive around the Loch. There were some more sketchy single-track roads, but by this point we were experts! This concluded our day trip, back to the AirBnB to get ready for a long day!

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