Siddarth Family Summer Vacation 2019

Since everyone was tired after a long day of driving and a late evening back from Inverness, we planned a lighter day. The weather also was promised to be a mix of rain and clouds. We decided to take a gondola ride up Aonach Mòr. Aonach Mòr, at 1221m (4006’)  is near the tallest mountain in the UK - Ben Nevis (1344m / 4409’). The gondola ride up the mountain gave us great views of the nearby valley as well as the mountain biking tracks available on the mountain - perhaps an adventure for another time. At the top of the mountain was a short hiking trail, leading to Victoria viewpoint. Our first attempt on this trail was met with an immediate rain shower, and a retreat to shelter at the cafe. After a break for lunch, we made a second attempt up to the viewpoint. This time we managed to find the clouds, and spent a good 30 minutes either walking among the clouds, or waiting for them to part to see the view. We all decided to give up on the clouds, and were halfway downhill...

With the promise of good weather, we decided to drive to Inverness. With only a brief stop near Gairlochy for some nice views, we drove past the wonderfully named Loch Lochy (Lake Lakey? as the in-car joke referred to it as) to out first stop at Fort Augustus. We stopped to enjoy the views of the south end of Loch Ness, the workings of the canals and the sights of boats making their way up the locks, transporting them from loch ness to Loch oich. After some ice-cream, coffee, snacks and pictures, we continued our drive to Inverness. We stopped along the way for small walks to see beautiful bridges and take pictures. Hungry, our first business in Inverness was some Indian food at a restaurant that managed to make all the food a little too sweet. After lunch, we made our way along the River ness to Inverness Castle. After some sights from the top of the castle tower, and taking in some stories about local legends offered as part of the tour of the castle, w...

Tired from the journey, we woke up late and explored the house a little bit. We set out for lunch in the the near-by town of Fort William . Rain was predicted for the whole day, limiting our options for the day. Since we did not manage to get tickets for the Jacobite train , that runs from Ft William to Mallaig, we decided to, instead, go see the nearby iconic Glenfinnan viaduct , made famous by the Harry potter movies . The rain deterred half the group, who stayed back in the car, but the other half braved a wet mile long easy hike to a viewpoint that gave us a very wet and rainy spectacular view of the viaduct. We hiked back to the car, enjoying the usual quota of laughter and enjoying all the mini waterfalls and waterways that were carrying away the rain water to the nearby river, which too had grown to a raging torrent Having had enough of the rain, we headed back to the cabin to enjoy some hot, fresh cooked dinner of rice, cauliflower poriyal and payatt...

After breakfast at the rutland inn, we packed up the car, said our goodbyes to family, took some last minute pictures and started the drive to Ballachulich. Here's a map of the drive for the day, marked with the major stops. Around 1 pm, we stopped at the Mainsgill farm shop and foodhall for some lunch. The boys really enjoyed the zipline and play area outside as well as gazing at the collection of emus, sheep, camels and cows that surrounded the farm shop. The light outside was amazing, and so was the weather, so we wandered around and enjoyed as much of the beautiful weather as we could, since heavy rain was predicted for the duration of our stay in Scotland. After a second round of desert, we resumed our drive. Suba drove across most of England, giving us beautiful views of the english country side, loads of sheep, some brief hills, and very interesting hand-stacked stone walls that divide property in the UK. We ventured across the border to Scotland a...