The sequel, for those who didn't fall asleep... 8th day. Mallaig - Loch Ness � Inverness � Aviemore � Boat of Garten We left the coast with a certain regret to reach the lochs again. Loch Ness looks like it never ends� There was a lot of traffic and the road was often narrow, so we proceeded slower than we thought (it was a blessing after the single-track roads, though). We stopped at Urquhart Castle, a nice place but nevertheless a tourist trap (and not the last one of that day�). Skipped the Monster Exhibition, we then reached Inverness, where we bought fish and chips at a Chinese take away. Aviemore was not far away, but I hadn�t had any news from Cotty & Co. yet so, as soon as we arrived there, I called him and was not surprised to hear that he was taking pictures in the woods with Jostein...
There are no words to describe how kind Alma, Vera, Cotty and Jostein were! A very nice mood pervaded all the night. Worth a honourable mention, the chicken cooked by Jostein. Cotty is a true paparazzo, we have the evidence� Too bad we could stop for just one night and leave early in the morning (we realized that another stop in Edinburgh was necessary to buy few presents we weren�t able to find elsewhere). After we took leave of the two wonderful families, the 9th day saw us travelling eventually southwards. A stop in Perth allowed us to visit St. John Church and let me visit almost all the photo shops available (always in search for interesting items� found a Sigma 50mm macro in KA mount � don�t remember the price - and, in another shop, a KX with 50/1.7 for �109 � no, I didn�t buy them). In Edinburgh we found a nice rain that grew in intensity as we started to go in and out of the shops (luckily we had a good memory of where to find what we wanted to buy). We left Edinburgh and had a bit of pain in deciding what route to follow, then we headed to the closest interesting place on the more direct road to England, Jedburgh. In Jedburgh there is an 14th Century abbey which reminded me of San Galgano in Tuscany, a place I visited in 2002. We were able to find a hotel with restaurant in the very centre of the town, just in time � almost too late - for dinner (I tasted the haggis I was longing for, eventually�). From our room there was a nice view on the abbey, nicely lit, at dusk. I shot a couple of pics with the Z-1p and the last one of the Velvia roll in the MX. I was so tired I decided to unload the MX in the morning so� �so the 10th day photographically begun with a foreseeable mess: I opened the MX, thinking it had been unloaded, to find the Velvia roll still winded� I have yet to see the slides but there was plenty of light so my guess is that almost half of the frames were burned� :-( Pity� This happened on the English border. When we reached the highway the rain reached us, and it kept on raining until we arrived in London. There we met a friend of my brother�s, Salvatore, who I discovered is a Pentax fan (he doesn�t shoot a lot now, but still has a working ME super�). Another nice dinner with plenty of wine (red one, this time). The day after we went back to Stansted. The total mileage was around 1700 miles, not bad for a brief journey� We got on the EasyJet plane in time to wait for the crew to count us all at least five times; then they decided that there was somebody too much� Eventually they found out that a lady was not properly registered, so we took off a hour later than scheduled� That�s all, I think. I hope I haven�t bothered you more than necessary� If I�m able to find the time to scan them, I�ll post some of the more interesting pictures (if there�s any�) on photo.net. Ciao, Gianfranco PS: Cotty and Jostein, you�ll be first to see them, of course� ===== __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com
