The Scottish Highlands is an incredibly beautiful place, with immense natural beauty. There are long narrow Lochs, some connected to the sea and most others being fresh water ones, there is one deep one that is supposed to contain a prehistoric monster, there are regions which are very rugged, there are some hills and mountains (not very tall though), and some places that seem very untouched. But most of all, for a first time visitor, it is the bodies of water, the Lochs, which present a lot of beauty. In a number of places, these long narrow bodies of water stretch for long distances with a road running right next to them. You can reach them, park the vehicle next to them, get out and just enjoy the beauty of these lakes of pristine water - and there will be many places where you would not see anybody else around.
In a number of these lakes, one does not even know the name of the Loch next to which you are passing by. Just the road next to the lake, with a parking area and you can just stop there, send some time in perfect peace and then get onto doing what you were doing before you stopped. So, for example, on this road, there is a Loch right to the left of the road, and there is a place where it is perfectly fine to park and get out and enjoy a view of the lake.
This is a view of one of these Lochs. We were traveling from Edinburgh towards Loch Ness and came across the first of these Lochs on the side of the road. Soon, we reached a spot where one could easily pull over to the side of the Loch, and even though the side of the road was located much higher than the surface of the Loch, the view from between the trees was beautiful and showed the expanse of the Loch at this point (the Loch is located on the side of a hill, and hence tends to be not very wide, but can be very long, going along the length of the hill).
Another view of a different Loch. Again, this was accessible from the side of the road and we were again at a higher position than the surface of the Loch. Further, in this part of this Loch, it seems like there is some sort of power generating equipment on the shore of the Loch (either using the waves directly, or which uses the water for cooling purposes and for generating the steam that drives its turbines).
Another view of the same Loch as above, but from a point that was much further ahead. The gap between the road surface and the surface of the Loch had slightly decreased, but it was still a tricky descent to the water level and we decided not to do it. The trees at this point were slightly thicker, and it was more difficult to get a clear view of the water surface and the horizon, but by moving around a bit, it was possible to get some sort of view.
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View of a Loch in the Scottish Highlands, visible through tree branches, with hills in the background (More photos / Print of photo) |