Through the magic of the zoom lens, I can add another photograph to the body of
scientific evidence of the Loch Ness monster.

How terrifying it was! How we few tourists felt a chill to the bones at seeing that dark form moving silently through the waters at a speed that can only be described as leisurely. It made it all the more horrifying for us when it made its inexorable way to shore, drawn no doubt by the ancient primordial search for blood sacrifice. Or at least …

… bread crumbs. And come to think of it, this was Loch Lomond, not Loch Ness. But other than that, this is a darn good sighting.

I can see how the whole thing got started — or at least how it might’ve seemed plausible — on the black banks of the gray loch under the gray sky. It was hard to make things out clearly on the water and there was something so ancient about the look of that troubled water at the foot of misty green mountains that you could almost believe that it still housed some creatures who had been driven out elsewhere.

Our tour guide apologized for the weather, but it was just what I was expecting. And it’s what has made Scotland look the way it does, rugged and rocky and overgrown with centuries-old growth. We drove around the lochs for several hours and then took the ferry back to the dock, so I’m extrapolating from that small bit of information. But the scenery was fairly fabulous in any place that was still comparatively undeveloped, and there were many such places. At the little town of Luss, rows of cottages looked more like doll houses than real places, and when you peeked between the cottages, they had perfect little gardens. I sort of hated that two tour buses descended on such a place, and we didn’t see any of the natives, but that made it better I think, because it allowed me to believe that hobbits lived there.

It seems at this point that we’ll miss our next Scottish destination on the cruise because of bad weather. But with luck we’ll be able to make Edinburgh on Monday. I hope so, because I don’t want to end my time in Scotland so soon.