Whoa Nessie
After a few days taking in the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh we picked up our SUV and were off to see the Scottish Highlands. Our first stop was to try and spot old Nessie at Loch Ness. Loch Ness has become synonymous with grainy photographs and cardboard hoaxes but this overshadows the lake’s more fascinating details.
Loch Ness is the largest lake in the UK by volume. It runs 37 km long with an average width of 1.7 km. At its deepest point it is 230 metres making it deeper than 4 of the 5 great lakes and according to the Scottish Sun newspaper, is capable of containing the entire world’s population ten fold. It also sits on a fault line with the land to the North once part of Greenland and North America and the land to the south once being the European border. Today the Loch is part of a canal system that allows boats to traverse Scotland from the Atlantic to the North Sea. We were able to see the canal in action during our visit.
What has helped maintain the mystery of the lake is how difficult it is to explore and how little it is used for recreation beyond the site seeing boats filled with tourists. This is due to two things.The first is It is incredibly dark with very limited visibility due to the peet that washes into it from the surrounding mountains. The second is it is extremely cold with a temperature that stays around five degrees Celsius year round. That is the temperature of lake Ontario in December.
There is indeed life in Loch Ness but DNA testing of the lake by Otago University has proven that there is no giant dinosaur like creature lurking below the surface. Pike, trout, and salmon, all do call Loch Ness home as well as many types of eels including the European or Conger Eel which can reach close to 10 feet long and weigh in excess of 150 pounds. Loch Ness is also connected to the sea by 6 miles of river so the possibility remains that some sightings might have been seals or giant sturgeon brought in from the North Sea.
What I do know for sure is that we all really enjoyed our one hour tour out on the lake with Tour Loch Ness. The scenery from the surrounding mountains was stunning. Sophie did spot something out there on the lake and we did managed to take a picture. She thinks it might have been Nessie but I think it looks more like a log or a shadow. Its hard to make out exactly what it is. We’ll allow you to judge for yourself.