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Loch Lomond to Oban

Before our visit to Loch Lomond we stayed one night at an interesting house just north of Glasgow.  Interesting because of the head of the house was part Scottish Wildcat.  Samuel was most impressed by our handsome host.


We arrived at Balloch mid morning, the gateway village for visitors to Loch Lomond NP.  In Balloch we visited a small but very impressive raptor park.  The park provided a home for eagles, owls, hawks and falcons, some bred in captivity and some which had been rescued or confiscated from various situations.  Apparently the had quite a few Australian visitors since they were recently featured on some Aussie TV show.



Driving along the shore of the loch we stopped at an artisan store where we enjoyed a nice ploughmans lunch that we made up ourselves after browsing the store.  Elise was excited by her first sight of highland cattle in the adjacent paddock.


The small village of Luss on the western shore of the Loch was our very pretty next stop.  It seemed likely that tourism accounted for almost 100% of the economy judging by the huge carpark full of cars and busses on the edge of the village.  The streets were picture postcard perfect, the old church and graveyard suitably rustic and the gift shops were full of the expected teatowels, spoons and woollens.  We went to the local smokehouse for some salmon as our edible souvenir of our visit.

We spent the latter part of the afternoon covering the very scenic and winding drive to Oban.  We stopped for 30 seconds at Inveraray Castle for a quick photo through the gates.




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