Day 3: Dumbarton to Dundee

Our ultimate aim for the day was to drive from Dumbarton to Dundee, on the eastern side of Scotland. If we took the most direct route, it would be a journey of around 85 miles, but we wanted to have the most scenic drive possible. After breakfast in Dumbarton, we therefore initially drove north, in the direction of Loch Lomond. Our first destination was the small village of Luss, which we'd visited on one of our previous trips to Scotland and remembered as being really attractive.

It didn't take us long to arrive and find a car park, from where we could walk down to the shores of the loch.

It was a little bit wet this morning, but the views were beautiful even with the mist.

We even founds some swans and ducks

The village of Luss itself is very pretty too.

Apparently it's famous because the Scottish TV series "Take the high road" was filmed there, but I don't think I've ever seen it.

It's only a small village, so once we'd had a wander around and finished admiring the lake, it was time to get back in the car.

There were some amazing views of Loch Lomond as we continued to follow the main road around the western shore of the lake.

The weather began to brighten up as we drove, and by the time we reached the next viewpoint it was starting to look sunny

I can't remember what this place was called, but there was a small car park with a path to follow towards a viewpoint out across the water.

It was definitely worth stopping to admire the views here

After the viewpoint we continued driving north, towards a village called Bridge of Orchy. It was a really beautiful drive

By the time we got to Bridge of Orchy the clouds were starting to look a bit darker, though.

There isn't much in the village itself but there was a small car park here where we were able to leave the car and walk along a bit of the West Highland Way.

We followed the path, climbing up through a forest.

It did rain for a while, and when we turned around we could see the hills were disappearing into the mist.

After walking uphill for a while, we got our first glimpse of some water in the distance.

It was still rather damp and misty when looking back towards Bridge of Orchy...

...but once we reached the high point of the walk and started descending the other side, things started to brighten up

We were now getting closer to the water, which turned out to be a lake called Loch Tulla.

The path led us past this solitary windswept tree...

...and then began to lead down to this small cluster of white houses which we could see in the distance.

It was hard not to just keep taking photos of the same views, because they were so spectacular

As we got closer to the loch we could see that the water looked quite dark in places.

It reminded me a bit of the black lake which we'd once walked around in Montenegro.

The weather was now beginning to look much sunnier

Our destination was looking closer too.

We were walking down towards the Inveroran hotel, where we were hoping to get some refreshments.

Luckily it did indeed turn out to be open and we were able to get a couple of paninis for lunch Suitably refreshed, we then just had to trek back to our car at Bridge of Orchy.

The weather had gone off a bit again by this point and it was rather windy!

It was still a lovely walk with some great views though!

After an hour or so we could see Bridge of Orchy appearing in the distance.

The mist had cleared again on the mountains here. The weather was very fast-changing today!

We got back to the car some time after 3pm and then had two hours of driving across Scotland to Dundee. First impressions of Dundee from driving through it are that it is nowhere near as pretty as Bridge of Orchy