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We made it all the way to Inverness and back with no real insidence. Well since it was us there were one or two!!
The roads were much improved on the previous day so driving was no real trauma. We stopped off in Perth for some nibbles and groceries for our cabin and a couple of Ben 10 figures for the boys. (Guess the cartoon network decided to cash in and not stick to the "10" aliens!) Once back on the road DH had promised a pit stop at the House of Bruar where there is a huge stock of Joules clothing. I came out with a bright yellow polo shirt and a baby blue baseball cap. I also toyed with the idea of lilac wellies but couldn't make my mind up. (FYI we stopped back in on our road home for the wellies).
We were held up a little with lorries and knobs on the roads. The knobs are folk who tailgate and try and pass in crazy places which puts everybody at risk. There was one in particular I wanted to see on his roof!! Ok so I didn't really but would have served him right the way he was driving. We met up with our friends outside Inverness for lunch before making our way to the chalet.
When we found the chalet they weren't quite ready for us, but since we had two booked it wasn't a disaster to bunk down in our friend's one for an hour. They knew where we were but no-one came to tell us it was ready. So I decided to call and see what the story was. I was told they were just closing and that they thought we were already in!! Ten of us in a 6 bed chalet and one toilet would have been no fun!
We got to ours and it was ok. Not as clean as I would have expected and a tv the size of an iPod, thankfully we took the laptop and some DVD's. The toilet was also a bit hit and miss. It would flush on the tenth attempt and then take an hour to fill up again. We didn't bother complaining as we were only there to sleep anyway.
The next day we had planned to do the LochNess thing. We went to the Official exhibition - not as good as I remember from 5 years ago. Then we wanted to do a cruise on the loch. The problem was I misread the information so we missed the sailing for that day. We then decided to go to the unofficial exhibition which had a mini cinema and film reel on. We went in and blagged a family ticket for 10 folk!! Well if you have ever been the guy makes more of his shop than of the rest of the display. The kids also came out with the word "twat" added to their vocabulary!! The film included a slagging match between a witch who cast a spell to protect Nessie from a Scandanavian scientist who was planning to get DNA samples from the monster.
The next day we came back down for the boat trip. It was lovely but cold and very scary when you know you are in a 50 berth boat and there is near 800ft of water below you. Loch Ness holds more water than all the bodies of water in England and Wales put together. We then had lunch (my daughter took ill and was sick for hours and nothing stayed down) then tried 10 pin bowling when she was sleeping. She didn't improve and was looking quite week and dehyrated so we took her to A & E (it was a sunday and didn't know where else to go) to be checked over. The doctor thought it was just a bug and yes she was quite dehydrated but not so bad that she would need admission. But were told if we had any more worries or she didn't improve to get her straight back in again.
By the next day she was much better and ready for our trip home. We had decided to go to the Highland Wildlife Park which was about 40 miles from Inverness. We figured we would know more about how she would fair at the park after the drive there. She was fine and we went, had a great time and the kids loved it especially the fact that they could stand shoulder to shoulder with an Amur Tiger (albeit seperated by what I hope was toughened glass). There were also snow monkeys, Bison, Elks, wild horses (one took a dislike to the car in front and very nearly reared up to bring it's hooves down on the bonnet) plus many many more.
We all love it up there and so I am pretty sure that we will be heading up that way again very soon.