Running in Scotland #2: Looking for Nessie along the South shore of the Loch Ness

Did I find and see Nessie, finally? Let's cut it to the chase: no, I must have got up too late with the jet lag but... I definitely saw its trace, see for yourself!

Yes, all along the Loch Ness, who else could that be, right?

Ok, ok, there was some good wind blowing from the North East, so maybe it was just some froth, but that was so long, I think a better explanation is Nessie making fun of us! Oh, and we found Nessie looking over the locks of the Caledonian Canal in Fort Augustus (this canal crossing Scotland from Fort William to Inverness and through the Loch Ness is quite another civil engineering fate).

Kidding apart, I was excited to run along this mythical and mysterious lake in the middle of Scotland.

Like for Edinburgh this weekend, I had not done my home work though and had not even figured out which side/shore I would run along. The more touristic route is the largest road on the North shore. Agnès preferred the South side so I started my run from Dores.

To make a long story short (for once!) I had some bad diarrhea so it turned to quite a painful run of only 13 miles as I called it a day at the falls of Foyers.

In retrospective, it was safer this way as it was neither safe to run on the road nor with a better understanding of the trail system. Besides, the road to Fort Augustus after Foyers gets pretty far from the Loch and hilly, so you'd better find and stay on the official South Loch Ness trail. By the way, the full loop is 81-mile long, that would make for quite an ultra!

Bottom line, sorry my post isn't much helpful in case you are planning to run while in the area and... looking for Nessie. Hope you are more successful and, for those interested in a bit of virtual tour of that section of the Loch Ness, here are a few pictures below.

First view of the Loch Ness coming from Inverness.

The Loch Ness from Dores

The small Post Office of Dores (not much helpful with trail directions...)

Leaving Dores on the road

Found this nice forrest/fire road about 2 miles from Dores

As Yogi Barra once said "If you get to a fork, take it!"

Getting down to the road, to the picnic area to meet with Agnes.

Remote view of the famous Urquhart Castle on the North shore

The cemetery at the exit of Inverfarigaig

The falls of Foyers