I had trouble sleeping during the night. Although the sun went down sometime around 10:30PM, the twilight lasted till well after 11:30 and it was throwing my time clock off.

I didn't want to leave Drumnadrochit, but we had a schedule to meet and we'd paid the deposit on our room in Ft. William.

We had until early afternoon to spend in the village, so we decided to walk into the countryside. Heading north out of town, we walked towards a nature preserve. According to my map, the hike was only two miles, but after an hour and a half of walking we were only half way there. The terrain was easy-going, so the mileage vs. the distance traveled just didn't add up.

We walked through pine forest for a long way, and it was wonderful. The rain had made the trees especially fragrant, plus there was an extra sweet smell in the air that was unlike pine forests back home. The air was absolutely clear and the only sounds were the river and the birds. Yes, I certainly wanted to stay here for several more days.

Past the forest, we moved into moors, where my shoes and pant legs got soaked, making the hike a bit more uncomfortable and eventually we reached a point where we had to turn around. Time was running out and Chu-Wan's legs weren't long enough to jump over some of the water obstacles.

The bus from Drumnadrochit to Ft. William was very scenic, traveling along the shores of the loch and then through the countryside. We left Loch Ness without ever seeing the monster.

The trip was only despoiled by the four loud, incredibly foul-mouthed people sitting behind us. Two hours of listening to them was more than enough.

Ft. William sits on the west side of Scotland, at the foot of Ben Nevis, the tallest mountain in Britain. While not as quaint as Drumnadrochit, Ft. William's surroundings were beautiful. We hiked south on the West Highland Way, a 95 mile trail leading to Milngavie along the shores of Loch Lomond.

We only traveled for a couple of miles along the trail into Glen Nevis, the valley alongside Ben Nevis. We passed the Braveheart Carpark, so named because the very few scenes of the movie Braveheart that were shot in Scotland were filmed nearby. The scenery was spectacular, but again our lack of time thwarted my desire to explore the area more. I was getting increasingly frustrated.

We went back into town and, when passing a pub, overheard the entire establishment singing "Bicycle Built For Two". I had a flashback to the old Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes adventures, remembering a scene in one of the movies where the pub crowd was singing that very song. I guess they did their research after all.