OBU in London #18 - August 4 (Loch Ness)

Our room at Seabreeze B&B

Breakfast @ Seabreeze

July 16 – August 14, 2018 – “The London 15” – OBU Student Abroad in London, England 

This summer, I had the privilege of spending a month in England with a group of 15 students from Oklahoma Baptist University.  Dr.

Journaling at Breakfast

Lindsey Panxhi (an English faculty colleague) and myself, along with our respective spouses, conducted a faculty-led Study Abroad that spent four weeks on the ground in London teaching OBU courses to OBU students while being immersed in the culture and history of Great Britain.  These are our stories! 

Saturday, August 4 – Loch Ness!

View from our room

Today was a day of ups and downs, missed opportunities, redeemed mistakes, and reminders. 

Beach by Seabreeze, Edinburgh

We woke up to a beautiful sunny morning overlooking the glittering Firth of Forth.  Went downstairs for breakfast, which was in a charming dining room.  Breakfast was delicious – smoked salmon and scrambled eggs on toast; yogurt, croissants, tea, and orange juice.  Our hostess, Selma, was lovely and gracious.

We adjusted our starting schedule to allow Sierra and Saydi time to explore the beach and hunt for shells.  Admittedly, I really enjoyed the cool ocean air as well.  Nice start to the day.

Wallace Monument rising
through the forest

Instead of traveling to Dumfermline Abbey first, we headed straight to Stirling after the beach.  Nelson had insisted that we add the Wallace Monument to our itinerary – so we did.  And boy were we happy we did!  The talk through the forest up to the monument was beautiful – some nice views of the valleys from “Abbey Craig” – the mountainous forested hill the monument crowns.  There were also signs, and displays along the way, giving history of the area and its strategic importance. 

Tawa, Sierra, and Saydi
in traditional medieval garb

The Wallace Monument itself is built in honor of the Scottish freedom fighter William Wallace, who defeated and held off the English several

Don't lose your head!

times before his defeat, capture, and execution.  The Monument is a spire rising straight up, almost like Saruman’s White Tower in Lord of the Rings.  Beautiful and striking.  The Scottish, like the English, are very good at honoring their past and their military victories – two things that Canada struggles with a bit. 

We left the Monument and drove to Stirling Castle, but unfortunately did not anticipate PARKING.  The Castle lot was full; the center of town, around the Castle, was brutal to navigate, and we couldn’t find a parking spot.  After a few minutes, we abandoned our attempt and decided to head on to Loch Ness.  At least, we figured, this way we’d get there LONG before our 4PM boat reservation.

The impressive stature of
Wallace Monument

Halfway into the drive we stopped for toilets and lunch at Blair Atholl, a

Tree-huggers!

lovely little crossroads town by Cairngorms National Park.  We wandered by the river a bit, and ate our lunch at an OK streetside fish & chips café.  As we were finishing eating, I looked at my watch … in horror.  It was 2:15, and we still had at least two hours to go!  Now we were late for our boat ride.  We headed out, and 45 minutes later knew there was no way we’d make it.  Vanessa called the boat tour company to

Beautiful views from Abbey Craig

explain; they told us to hurry as best we could, but they couldn’t hold the boat. 

The closer we got to Loch Ness (Fort Augustus is the village at the bottom end), the worse the roads got!  Very windy, and very narrow – barely room for two vehicles across.  By the time we reached the boat place in Fort Augustus, it was 4:30, and we had reconciled ourselves to not getting onto the Loch at all.

Beautiful Scottish countryside

Vanessa driving in Scotland!

The owner and skipper, however, were exceedingly gracious in putting us on a second (smaller) boat and giving us a 45-minute tour of Loch Ness.  We were absolutely thrilled and SO thankful for their gift of grace. 

The ride was exhilarating!  It was an 18-meter pontoon boat that went probably 35-40 miles per hour, and cut very impressively through the fairly sizeable chop on the Loch.  

Boating on Loch Ness!!

Our skipper was clearly skilled, and loves being on the Loch.  He looked like he belongs on Loch Ness in the Highlands!  Long braided hair, beard, tall, thin, big gaping smile.  He gave us an awesome ride on the Loch, and shared great info and history too.  The Loch is 24 miles long, averaging 200 meters deep; the water is dark, almost impenetrable to light – apparently the dark tinge is due to tannin, which washes out of the peat that is carried to the Loch by runoff water.  Fascinating!  Our skipper thinks there is good reason to believe that at least one large

creature lives within the Loch – so Nessie could be real after all! 

Our boat was also a wonderful reminder of God’s goodness and grace.  When I realized we were going to miss our reserved boat, I just got disappointed immediately, and reconciled myself to missing out.  Sierra, however, started praying (silently) that God would somehow work to get us on that boat.  God did not owe us anything, but it was His good pleasure to answer the honest petition of His child.  Why was I so quick to give up?  Why did I not entreat God to redeem our mistake?  I am thankful, Lord, for the reminder of Your grace, and the way You desire to bless and redeem.  Help me, I pray, to remember, and to be bolder in approaching Your throne of grace.

The Loch Ness boat ride was a thorough joy and thrill!  I hope to be able to do it again some day, if the Lord permits.  Our captain also gave us good suggestions on taking some back roads along the “wild side” of  Loch Ness to get back to Edinburgh.  We gladly took his advice – well worth it!  The views and scenery were amazing – great pictures and memories of the constant hills and valleys, the sheep and cattle (including shaggy cows!!!).  The roads were wild too – most

The Girls with the Captain!

frequently it was a one-lane road, with periodic “passing places.”  At one point, there was a UPS delivery truck behind us that clearly wanted to pass us.  I figured this was great – I’d let him pass, and then I’d just hug in behind him and follow him.  Surely he would cut a great path for us, and we could trust that we weren’t going to collide head-on with a vehicle coming around the corner.  Well, the truck passed us, but I couldn’t keep up with him!  He went a-flying around a couple of corners, and was gone!  Probably going 65-70mph – speed limit on these narrow one-lane “highways” was 65mph.  Hard to believe!  A very nerve-wracking drive, but very exciting and

Gorgeous Scottish Highlands

enjoyable.  The girls were good troopers all the way along.

We stopped for supper at The Letterbox in Newtonmore, but they turned us away – too busy!  So we backtracked five miles to Kingussie, and were the last guests to be seated at The Tipsy Laird.  And was THE BEST meal we’ve had thus far in the UK!  Vanessa had an outstanding beef pot pie (mmmmmm … tasty beef!).  I had a poached salmon in Hollandaise sauce.  Both were excellent.  She had the sticky toffee pudding for dessert, while I had a meringue nest with ice cream & fruit.  Both were good, but Vanessa’s whole meal was the

Dessert at The Tipsy Laird

best.

Sticky Toffee Pudding

We didn’t get back to Edinburgh until midnight – a satisfied and weary crew.  There were so many chances today for things to go wrong and wreck the day.  Instead, God blessed us with a wonderful and memorable time.