Beautiful drive to Loch Lomond and the Trossachs
Our good friends Dave and Sarah came to visit this weekend so we decided to take a drive and see the beautiful Scottish countryside. They live in Liverpool which is about 5 hours from Crieff and they haven’t explored much of Scotland. Since we’re new to this area as well, it was the perfect opportunity to do a little exploring. Today’s trip will be Loch Lomond and the Trossachs.
Good friends Dave & Sarah
Captain America with Bucky
The Misses, me and Sarah
Loch Lomond and the Trossachs are just about 2 hours from Crieff and the first national park in Scotland. In 2002, the Scottish Parliament established two national parks, Loch Lomond and the Trossachs, and Cairngorms. Loch Lomond and the Trossachs separate the lowlands and highlands with the Highlands Boundary Fault running through four of the islands in the loch.
Loch Lomond is Great Britain’s largest fresh water lake by surface area. The loch is almost 23 miles long and almost 5 miles at the widest part, and a max depth of 500’. It is surrounded by hills and Scottish “munro” peaks or peaks that are over 3,000’ high. Wow, my driveway is at 10,050’! Popular with hikers and walkers, the park holds more than 20 munros and 20 Corbetts. What the hell is a corbett? These are hills that are not high enough to be classified as a “mountain” but still high enough to provide a challenging hike. Both munros and corbetts are compiled on a list for those who participate in peak bagging. Now, what the hell is peak bagging? Peak bagging is where hikers have a list of hills and mountains they want to climb, and they see how many they can complete.
A “Corbett”
A “Munro”
So, on with the road trip! It was clear and sunny when we left Crieff, but once reaching the loch, it’s raining. Not a constant rain but frequently enough to keep things wet and soggy. Cool today, high temp only around 500 so jackets and scarves are in order. Best part of this trip is that I don’t have to drive, Dave is taking care of that. Finally, a chance to see some of Scotland’s beautiful scenery!
Of course, no road trip would be complete without a stop at one of the small, local shops for a coffee and pastry.
Scone & Cream puff
Just across the street from the café there is a boat tour of the loch. “Cruise Loch Lomond” tours offers a nice 1-hour cruise around the mid-point of the loch and a couple of the islands. All this for only 10GBP, what a deal! We got on board just in time as another squall to came through and drenched an already soaking parking lot. Wouldn’t be a very good ride if the rain continued but as luck would have it, the skies cleared a bit and the rain stopped. Time to go to the upper deck for some pictures.
The SS Minnow just left so we took this boat
View of the Loch and one of the “Bens”
Iversnaid Hotel
Nice boat ride, good views and the weather cooperated so once back at the pier, head for home. But not before we stop and get Dave a snack for the drive. On the way back we stop at a small pub that has Take Away and Dave orders up a nice serving of deep-fried haggis and fries and a deep-fried sausage. He shared the sausage but kept the haggis for himself, which was just fine with us!
Nothing like a deep-fried sausage to kick that cholesterol into high gear!
After that fine culinary treat, back on the road to Crieff. Almost cocktail hour so we have to hurry. Tomorrow is a down day so we’ll do a little laundry, write the blog, work on our Shutterfly book of Scandinavia and get ready for a major road trip on Monday. Monday, we leave for the Orkney Islands and a little exploring along Scotland’s northern coast. This trip we’ll log in close to 600 miles over the next 5 days. Should be some great scenery and a lot of historic sites, even the Churchill Barriers that were built at the start of WW2. Had to sneak that one in………