Jul 17

The Scouts did sleep in for sure. The leaders were all up by about 8:30, but most of the Scouts were dormant until about 10:30. When they finally did get up they moved about pretty slowly, cleaning up their backpack explosions and getting breakfast and lunch ready for the day.

By the time we were ready to leave for a walk it was almost noon. We started the day at the visitor centre in town looking for maps and trail guides and such. I think we might be heading back on the train for a short ride to Aviemore to go on a hike tomorrow. We'll have to see how that fits in with our other plans, and the fact that another Scout group from Kelowna is joining us at the Scout hall today.

We decided to go for a little walk down to the locks, where the canal joins Loch Ness to the ocean. There is another lock or two up at Loch Ness, and another one further down the canal where it meets the sea. We didn't want to wait around for an hour to watch the barge getting lifted up the canal so we strolled up the canal towards the Inverness Leisure centre, taking the long cut through an old cemetery. Unfortunately the oldest tombstone spotted was still in the 20^th century. We were hoping to see some from the 1800's or earlier.

The Scouts all went into the swimming pool at the leisure centre, where they enjoyed the water features much the same as the pool in Nanaimo. A few waterslides, a wavepool, a riverpool, hot tub, etc. We didn't get out of the pool until about 5:00 pm. Then we took a long slow roundabout walk to the Ceol-Mor again, through the islands walk on the River Ness.

While the Scouts were out with a few of the leaders, the rest of the leaders went out to see the moor where the “Battle of Culloden” took place in 1746, which was the final battle of the Jacobites against the English. The English, led by the Duke of Cumberland, beat his Scottish cousin Bonnie Prince Charlie with an overwhelming 9000 troops. On the site today is a large interpretation centre and Leanach Cottage, which was there at the time of the battle. A cannon ball was extracted from the turf wall of the cottage about 100 years ago.

We were unable to make a reservation at any restaurant in town today because there is a Rod Stewart concert this evening down at the football stadium. Coincidentally, he was also playing at the Edinburgh Castle the evening of the day we went up to the castle. So we were back to Ceol-Mor again, which did not bother the Scouts one bit. The Kelowna group joined us for dinner at the pub. They have 2 leaders, 5 girl Scouts and 1 boy Scout. Now our contingent is 28. So we booked a reservation for a different pub for tomorrow so that we can ensure we can get in with such a large group.

After dinner the shops were closed, so it appears that the Scouts were not able to do any shopping today at all. Yeah!

Back at the hall after dinner the playground occupied the majority of the Scouts for the evening while the leaders finished up the daily finances, collated the photos, and chatted about plans for tomorrow and such.

Tonight all electronics are being confiscated before bed, not so that they don't disrupt others, which has not been much of a problem the last couple nights, but to ensure every single Scout gets enough sleep. We had a couple very tired Scouts today. We can't afford that on the hike tomorrow as we MUST meet our timing to hit the bus/train back to Inverness for dinner.