Awoken by my youngest daughter at 7.20am today. Had hoped to lie in for a change as I have been getting up before 7am so far. Understandable though as it was her 15th birthday.

We quickly got ourselves together and went through the appropriate ceremonies. The best part was when we revealed that, contrary to all the misdirection we had been given, we had in fact managed to obtain a Nintendo Wii Fitness board for her. Sadly, although we had brought the Wii with us complete with SCART connector and the TV in the chalet has a SCART connector, there is no TV remote provided, only a basic SKY remote and the SKY boxed is connected on RF tuned to channel 8! The controls on the front of the telly provide for volume and channel selection only and channel 0 does not equate to the AV socket. We had no means of connecting the Wii to RF nor of tuning the TV to its RF signal or to use the AV socket. We could not even use the SCART sockets on the SKY box as the remote provided had no options for using these either. Oh well. She will just have to wait until we get home.

A glorious, clear, hot day greeted us and we headed off to one of the Lock Ness exhibitions that runs boat trips. I have done this more times than I care to remember and was happy to stay in the car with the dogs – it was too hot even in the shade to leave them in the car on their own. They needed to be out-and-about or in a car with the a/c on.

We had a terrible meal at this place just before the rest of the family headed of for the boat trip. The cafe charged nearly £40 for some very simple and small meals – I had a chicken curry with one serving spoon of rice and one of curry!

I am writing this sat in the car whilst the rest of the family are on the boat. The one key statistic I recall from previous trips is that Loch Ness, which has an average depth of 1 mile, contains more water than all of the water in the lakes, rivers and canals of England & Wales combined (actually, I can’t remember it that well – it might have been the rest of Britain combined – never mind, it is a lot of water anyway).

The trip was, apparently, brilliant and not especially crowded. A few photos taken by my wife:

The last photo is of Urquhart Castle, which we have visited on previous trips to Scotland.

At the end of the day, we swung by the retail park in Inverness and I picked up a Harmony Remote unit that I felt would be able to control the Toshiba TV back at the chalet. Sadly, it turned out to have not built in or configurable capabilities until programmed using a web application live on the internet (wonder how many other people that caught out), I had been planning to get one of these units to simplify use of the home cinema environment at home and Comet had a bargain price on this unit (less that half of the price I had been looking at previously).

We headed for Inverness again today with a stop on the way at the Loch Ness Visitors’ Centre. We have been the latter in the past and not much has changed – still loads of "tat" (as my parents would have said) for gullible tourists to waste their money on. The associated hotel on the other hand was very nice and looked to offer some good value meals. We simply had a few drinks which we drank whilst sank into the very comfortable leather settees.

As a change from the usual tourist spots (and prices) we decided to head into Inverness city centre for a simple meal and after parking-up and taking a short walk we found a few basic alfresco options. There was a couple of local guys talking to some tourists from the continent (could not catch the accent) at a table behind us but when I had finished my meal ahead of the rest of the family and pulled out my camera to take a few street shots, one of the locals engaged me in conversation.

Turned out he was a keen photographer and did a lot of wedding shoots. He posed for me in his chair and invited me to take a few shots. I do not think he was expecting much but when he asked to take a look at what I had done and took the camera from me he looked very surprised and asked me if I would send him the photos as he never normally gets his picture taken (not into self portraits I guess).

Earlier in the week we had found a hamlet called Kilmuir on the banks of the Moray Firth where there was a simple stone beach easy for us to access that was otherwise pretty deserted and hence a practical place for us to let the dogs run free and swim. Currents in the area seemed relatively light as well so we did not have to worry about how far out the dogs swam. Like many hamlets, getting there involved a trip on narrow roads with lots of passing places but you get used to that after a while.

My knee problems prevented me from going down to the beach this time but I was happy enough staying in the car and reading the paper whilst the rest of the family went out and played.

When the eventually came back, the dogs had trouble jumping into the back of the car because they were so tired.

I wanted to minimise the amount of driving I did today so we chose to go to the nearest town: Fort Augustus. This is a very popular tourist spot featuring a series of locks on the Caledonian Canal leading down to Loch Ness.

I did an unsuccessful hunt for Internet access in the town whilst the rest of the family visited a rare-breeds farm.

We tend to eat outside a lot because we normally have the dogs with us and do not want to leave them in the car. Unfortunately, this brings us to the front-line on a major problem in Scotland at the moment: wasps. I am convinced that the Scottish wasp is more aggressive than the English wasp. Both of my kids have already been stung without giving any provocation.

Whilst sitting outside a pub next to the canal in Fort Augustus, I took it upon myself to start trapping as many of the wasps as possible whilst we were eating our lunch. My wife took a photo of me in the early stages of the operation.

This provided much merriment to the rest of the family and felt like something of a fight-back on our part. However, when we came to the end of the meal we were at first uncertain about what we should do with the wasps we had trapped. We decided not to kill them as this just seems to cause more wasps that are somewhat more agitated to appear. In the end, we felt it was the pub’s problem as they had seating for customers outside. so we left the prisoners in place.

Some time later, when we were a fair distance away, we noticed the staff dealing with the problem. Badly. I could not resist taking a few photos at distance.

Heading to Skye was an obvious choice give we were already on the main road for Skye via the Skye bridge. We were tempted to go by ferry for part of the journey but saved that for later. I have happy memories of Skye from when I was a child. We set off with no particular purpose other than just finding somewhere nice to be out and about where we could let the dogs run free.

Sadly, the weather was against us. There was heavy rain most of the time. Actually, we do not mind rain that much – we have good coats. It does make the driving hard work though.

Eventually, we made our way to Portree where we walked the dogs on the "beach", had some fish-and-chips and generally watched life. One entertaining but somewhat painful moment came when a young lad appeared in the central square togged up in traditional gear and produced a set of bagpipes from a fabric bag. He then proceeded to demonstrated firstly extreme tuning problems and then some significant musical challenges. Lots of [other] turned up though and took photos and made a contribution to his strategically placed hat. (I did wonder what I would need to pay to get him to stop but fortunately a heavy shower scared him off.)

On our way back towards the bridge, we hit a traffic jam. It turned out to be an accident. What happened we do not know but there was a car say in a deep gully next to the road and it had clearly rolled over to get there. Before we got to this point, my wife and I tried taking a few abstract photos from our car seats.

On the drive back to the bridge, we spotted the sign for the short ferry crossing alternative and decided to go for it. We were glad that we did. The road was mostly single-track but with very clear sight-lines most of the time making very easy to drive. It was something of a roller-coaster though with lots of ups and downs. The scenery we went through though was some of the nicest we have ever seen.

When we eventually ran out of road at the waters edge, we found a a few cars ahead of us waiting for the ferry which can take only a few cars and a maximum of 12 passengers per crossing.

The crossing was short but great fun. The platform you drive onto is revolved so you can drive on an off in a forward direction. The single-track road on the other side was not as open as the preceding drive but was still relatively straight forward and it was no long before we rejoined the main route.

We spotted a bit of a tourist spot where we could get down to the river and so unleashed the dogs again for a swim. There was a point where the current was a bit to strong for them though so we could not relax completely.

The priority for today was to get some more fuel and provisions. We had found several garages the day before had no diesel which was a bit worrying as we only had about 70 miles left in the tank.

We headed to Inverness, about 35 miles away. If we did not find fuel there then we  would be stuffed. Fortunately, we did find fuel without problems as we neared Inverness. No doubt we could have risked waiting and finding the cheapest option but we just wanted to have a full tank and not worry about running out. Price was not the most important consideration.

I had forgotten how long it takes to get anywhere in this part of Scotland. Most of the main roads are winding two-way "A" roads with widely and regularly varying conditions. Having spent most of my time in the car over the last few months on motorways, this takes some getting used to. There are also lots of smaller roads (single lane with passing places) to many of the outlying locations some of which have mostly very clear views (easy to navigate) whilst others make their way along dark valley runs with lots of physical restrictions making it hard to see far ahead (hard to navigate – you are always expecting a car heading towards you just around the corner) – locals including deliver vans hit these roads a lot faster of course as they are so familiar with the territory.

It is interesting to note the rather large number of signs reminding people to drive on the left, to not drink-and-drive, to be courteous to other drivers, to allow overtaking and – most worryingly – reminding drivers: "mirror, signal, manoeuvre" … eek!

Rather than stay in the city, we skirted the outskirts and chose a small hamlet pretty much at random where we thought we would be able to let the dogs lose on a small beach. We found Kilmuir on the banks of the Moray Firth which was very nice.

The dogs had a great time dashing in and out of the water and we had fun throwing sticks further and further out into the water. Simple pleasures.

Our second mundane mission was to establish where a large supermarket was located so that we could get some provisions. We had in mind that it was a Sunday and that shops would probably be shut at 4pm. It crossed my mind that Scotland was ostensibly a more religious country than England and therefore might have even more strict Sunday trading regulations. We had passed a Tourist Information point on the way to Kilmuir so we made a way back there to get some information. We found that there was a cafe attached offering soups and sandwiches so we went for that first.

The weather was great and we sat outside with our dogs at a table and munched our lunch. We are still having a few problems with the dog we acquired earlier in the year. He tends to react badly to anyone running close to us. I think he just needs a firm hand and a bit more experience. He does frighten people though, especially kids, when he suddenly jumps up and starts barking aggressively at people. This is clearly not acceptable behaviour but we will cure him of it in due course. He was a stray we got from the local branch of the Dog’s Trust and we do not know his history. Goodness only knows what view he has of the world around him and how he relates that to normal pack behaviours.

The Tourist Information office left a lot to be desired. They had no maps for sale and the guy providing information seemed a little light on it. We wanted to know of places we could take dogs – especially beaches. He did suggest one particularly nice beach, located in the town of Nairn, but when we asked if dogs were allowed, he said "they cannot really stop them" which we took to mean that there were no restrictions.

He also gave us directions to a large Tesco store located nearby. I asked what its opening hours were and he told me 24 hour. I asked when it was open today and he repeated that it was a 24 hour store. We decided that we had better get there before 4PM. When we did find it, we were surprised to find that it did say very clearly that it was open 24 hours per day 7 days a week. It seems that Sunday trading laws in Scotland are rather more sensible than they are in England & Wales. So much for my assumption. We decided to leave the food shopping until the end of the day and head for the beach he had recommended.

Nairn is indeed a nice little place with beautiful beaches and very obvious and unambiguous signs advising that dogs are not allowed on the beaches at all during the summer months. Damn. We walked around for a while (well, I sat and did some photography whilst everyone else went for a walk). Weather varied a lot from bright, hot, dry conditions to dark, cooler and very heavy downpour conditions on a regular basis. At one point we had just finished a few chips off at a small beach cafe when the rains came down heavily and we watched scantily clad kids happily consuming ice-creams in the rain (you need to look carefully at the photo to see the rain).

We have been to Scotland many many times over the years. My parents used to take me regularly and I have picked up the habit. Generally though, when I say Scotland I actually mean the Highlands of Scotland – typically Glen Coe and beyond. We have stayed in Fort William many times. This time we were booked into one of two chalets located on a road to Skye about 30 miles south of Inverness.

We set off around 7.30am. We needed to arrive by mid-evening really. Allowing for stops, we expected the journey to take around 11 hours. This was going to be a long journey for our dogs – the longest so far for the newer of our two rescue dogs.

I was concerned about my knee but fortunately it is my left knee and I have an automatic car (a Mondeo). There is also plenty of room to stretch my left leg out fully (oddly not the case with the larger Volvo which we had considered using instead as it would have given the dogs more room in the back).

The drive was uneventful. Weather was great until we got North of Glasgow when we hit the smaller roads and then it got steadily worse and worse.

As we neared the destination, there was one disagreement between the satnav and the directions we had received.

The chalet was great. Very simple layout but highly practical with great parking and plenty of space for the dogs to run around.

We do not usually watch much TV when on holiday but were pleased to find a TV fed by a Sky box fed with a great signal from the satellite dish (its low angle reminding us just how far north we had come). During one very wet morning whilst waiting for everyone else to get up I did work my way through all the available channels and came to the conclusion that I was right to stick with Freeview at home (we have 3 PVRed tuners). I was amazed by the number of channels (at breakfast time) featuring a scantily clad woman inviting some poor sad lonely git to phone in for a chat (and others to phone in on a different number just to listen in to the conversation). Argh!!! If it wasn’t this, it was some kind of stupid game or, even worse, a TV shopping channel.

I had a very poor signal on my mobile and subsequently found that there was no chance of using mobile broadband (probably not a bad thing).

One thing we had forgotten about, having mostly been to Scotland around Easter time in recent years, is just how big a problem the midges are. They were hell outside the chalet. Inside there was some vapour bar that killed them so we were comfortable inside.