After a lovely lunch and numerous stops in laybys for L to have a wee (it was getting beyond a joke I think he was - excuse the pun - taking the piss!) we made it to Inverness.



It is only sheer luck that got us there though as it turns out. About 40 miles south of Inverness we were stuck in road works. When we moved slowly forward there was a clunking noise, nothing bad, or so we thought! The faster we went it seemed to stop, that is until we reached Inverness. Slowing up for a round about it was really noisy. As we were near the hotel we checked in a called the garage we bought it from (or at least a branch of the chain). They were able to have a look and the mechanic came running to DH and said "who fitted your tires?" The wheel was hanging on by a thread! We only got new tires the week before. But the nuts had worked theselves loose and had totally mangled the holes for them on our alloy.

The garage fixed it FOC and gave us a letter to take to the tire fitter about the problem. No harm done but OMG all the "what if's" that go through your head.

The drama behind us we started to enjoy our holiday. I think the kids would have stayed in the hotel the whole time as we were all camped out in the one room. We had also taken the laptop and some DVD's for them to watch as most Travelodge hotels only have the 4 basic channels and at the weekend that ammounts to Golf (FYI Gentlemen only, Ladies forbidden!) or football and some crap Saturday night entertainment show with Piers Morgan!

We headed out for something to eat, the boys' fancied Pizza Hut - fine by me as I love the stuffed crust. After tea we just headed back to the hotel as we were pretty tired from the 150 mile drive and the "excitment" of nearly loosing a wheel!

The next morning we headed out for breakfast and picked up some nibbles for a drive round Loch Ness. It wasn't until we were half way round that we raelised it was a 70 mile trip! Good though, except for the rain.

We headed down the East side - I had never been down that side before. The road takes you through some pretty isolated scenery. Part of the road was fairly close to the mountain tops where we saw 3 Red Deer stags.

By the time we reached Fort Augustus the boys were sleeping and the rain was too heavy to get out of the car.



Obviously I didn't take this picture as the weather was so bad. But these locks form part of the Caledonian canal which means that you can sail from Glasgow to Inverness.

We carried on up the West side of the Loch and passed Urquhart Castle - it is a beautiful old ruin over looking Loch Ness.



We then headed back towards Inverness via Drumnadrochit and the Official Loch Ness Exibition. Here we had our only glimpse of the monster ......



Doyouthinkshesawrus?