Loch Lomond

The highlight of last weekend was a trip to the gorgeous Loch Lomond.

Here's the castle where we stayed - it's now the Loch Lomond Youth Hostel. Apparently the grounds used to be the site of a hunting lodge of Robert the Bruce.

On a clear day, you can see the snow-capped peak of Ben Lomond from the grounds of the castle. After the hike up Ben Nevis, I was rather less keen on doing it this time. It's only 974m after all...

Rather, it was time to do something that I'd never considered doing, but which rapidly became something I chose to do - willingly - and I wasn't under the influence of alcohol at all. Let's start from the beginning.

It was a gorgeous day along the castle grounds

The evening started with us chilling in the lounge room of the castle.

Left-Right: Kelley, me, Kevin (of Clan McBeth), Melanie, Katrina

We then had a ceilidh, which was run by these guys:

I think some students didn't really get into the whole ceilidth thing. I walked out of the hall for a breather to find:

It was that kind of party

Anyways, hot and sweaty after the ceilidh, I walked out of the hall again, to hear some guy decide aloud that it would be a good idea to take a dip in the waters of Loch Lomond. It was approaching midnight.

Another random pic.

Being completely sober (i'd swear this on a stack of bibles), and still within the warmth of the castle, I said the fateful words:

"why not, I'm in"

I was instantly committed. Let's just say it was a very long 5 minute walk in the cold from the castle to the Loch. I had time to think about what I'd just committed myself into as I dodged puddles along a wet path in the rain.

Yay! I'm going to freeze alive!

Mind you, we did warm up beforehand:

There was nothing to it but to take the plunge. I'd note here that Loch Lomond looked much more inviting during the day.

Let's just say it wasn't very warm after midnight.

I had to do a wee bit of cropping for this pic...

Along the way to the lake, I came to the realisation that Kevin and I were the only 2 non-intoxicated people taking the plunge. Kev didn't even plan to swim... he was just there to egg me on (what friends are for). I mentioned this aloud, to hear the reply from an intoxicated Scotsman:

"It's more manly if you do it sober"

To which I'd reply:

"It's more idiotic if you choose to do it sober"

The only 2 sober guys

In any case, now I can cross off one more thing off my list of things to do in Scotland (though it wasn't on the original list, it deserves to be there for sheer audacity/idiocy):

• Take a midnight swim in Loch Lomond - Done