Upstream River Ness, Botanical Gardens

I had no firm plans for my day in Inverness today when I woke up this morning. That’s not surprising. When I wake up in the morning I’m usually in too much of a daze to recall and hold any plans in my head even if I had decisively made them by the night before. It usually takes a while before my mental haze lifts sufficiently for me to recall those intentions. In the case of some intentions, “a while” is likely forever.

Once my morning muddle receded, I remembered perfectly that I indeed had consciously made no plans whatsoever for today. After breakfast, I decided to walk up the River Ness. Finally! A plan!

There are three points to make here. First of all, I didn’t truly walk up the river. I walked on a sidewalk beside River Ness in an upstream direction. I don’t like to get my shoes wet if I can avoid it.

Second, I did eventually walk downstream on a path on the other side of River Ness. As much as I enjoyed Loch Ness yesterday, I thought it ill-advised to walk all the way there. Google Maps told me it would take two hours and 38 minutes to walk to the closest point on Loch Ness from the furthest upstream I walked today. Need I remind you that I’m old?

And, third, a river is essentially a large creek. So I think it is pertinent to note that I didn’t have a paddle when I was up the river.

Before I delve into that walk, first a brief aside.

Aside

Independent Souvenirs

Walking back from the café where I had breakfast, I saw the sign pictured here. “Independent souvenirs.” That warmed my heart.

I’m aware that some souvenirs, through no fault of their own, and for a variety of reasons, need a little help from other souvenirs. One should not attach any stigma to those disadvantages. I blame society for their plight. And I would be pleased to learn that they accept help when they need it.

Do souvenirs need anybody? They get by with a little help from their souvenir friends. Although, those may be only Lennon and McCartney souvenirs.

That said, souvenirs able to assert their independence are noble too. Good on you, independent souvenirs. But, at the same time, show compassion for the souvenirs less fortunate than you.

Upstream River Ness

Paths close to both banks of the River Ness continue upstream along its course for I don’t know how far, maybe all of the way to Loch Ness.

This morning, I walked upstream on the same side of the river as my hotel and then back downstream on the other side, with one diversion inland.

Close to central Inverness, roads run parallel to River Ness immediately on the other side of the paths from the river, one road for each riverfront path. Farther along, the roads and paths diverge, leaving the paths in bands of greenspace.

The central-town portion of the River Ness is very attractive. Farther upstream, it’s positively scenic.

After walking for 15 minutes or so, I spied a man standing in the fast-flowing, probably cold river. The ambient air temperature was decidedly on the cool side as well. He was much closer to the far shore than to the shore I was on, but he was well within the river.

That makes him sound like a crazy person until I tell you he was wearing hip waders and he was fly fishing. Then again, I don’t fish or have any interest in fishing, so it still makes him a crazy person in my books. (I have a weird book collection.) But, as they say, to each his or her own.

I watched him cast a few times. There were no tugs on his line with those casts, but I wasn’t close enough to see if he’d caught anything on previous tries. In my imagination, he was a restaurateur trying to catch my dinner, so of course he would have failed to hook anything. If it was someone else’s dinner, he would have been reeling them in on every try, up to whatever the legal limit is here in Inverness, if there is indeed a legal limit.

Re standing in the River Ness fishing, during the walking tour I took on my first day in Inverness, the guide said that the river is quite shallow and you can walk across it at the point where she was when she said it, without the water normally being much above your knees. (However, the river level varies depending on, I imagine, the amount of recent and current precipitation.)

As evidence of its shallowness, when we walked across a footbridge during that tour, the guide had us look down at the water. Despite it being a very overcast day and, therefore, the light levels being somewhat low, I could see the bottom. The fly fisher standing in the river at about knee deep was further substantiation of the shallowness of River Ness.

Ness Islands

About a 20-minute walk from central Inverness, there are five islands in River Ness. This is perfectly natural because if they were, say, inland in the commercial district, they’d be called parks, not islands.

Collectively, they are called the Ness Islands. I couldn’t see any names attached to the individual islands on Google Maps. But the Scots are quite creative. It wouldn’t surprise me if the locals had given them colourful nicknames if they don’t have official monikers.

The island farthest downstream is tiny. Two larger, slender islands sit in a line upstream from that one. The other two islands are smaller and also slender. They are parallel to and on either side of the more-downstream of the larger islands.

Both of the two larger islands are connected to the mainland by a footbridge. Another footbridge connects the two islands.

The footbridge between each of those islands and the mainland connects its island to only one side of the River Ness. Each island is linked to the opposite shore.

Thus, you can enter an island on one side, walk along the paths and footbridge through the islands and then cross over to the other side of the river, which is what I did.

The islands are spectacular. There are no structures on them, just trees, bushes, stones, rocks, some grass, a couple of subtly fancy concrete benches, and paths running their length. The views of the river and vegetation are stunning. I took advantage of one of the benches to sit for a while and appreciate the surroundings.

The Inverness Botanic Gardens (see below) is just a few blocks directly inland from where the footbridge from the upstream island deposited me on the opposite shore (opposite relative to the one I’d walked along to get to the islands). I diverted there and then returned to the same point on the riverside path where I’d left it to go to the Botanic Gardens. On my return, I walked back into central Inverness and found a restaurant for lunch.

On that walk back I saw where the fly fisher entered the river. There’s a small stone beach that gently descends to the river. A sign near it asks people to give anglers room.

For a short portion of the path on that side of the river, a narrow, one-way street and a counterflow cycling lane come between the path and the river bank. But that’s only a minor detraction from the pleasure of the path.

Inverness Botanic Gardens

The Inverness Botanic Gardens is somewhat small, but it packs a punch for its size. That is to say, it rhetorically packs a punch. It doesn’t literally pack a punch. I lingered there a bit and left unscathed.

The Botanic Gardens has two greenhouses. One contains a beautiful tropical garden. Hot and humid, it provides a nice respite on a cool day, such as today. And the plants, flowering and non-flowering, are beautiful.

There is a small goldfish pond in the tropical garden. A sign near it forbids throwing coins into the pond. The sign mentioned only coins. Nothing else. So if there’s a headache-inducing, rambunctious tyke in need of being taught a lesson there at the time, well, use your discretion.

One section in the middle of the tropical garden building has a second level. Stairs up on either side lead to a small terrace with a couple of wrought-iron, café-style tables and chairs, sans the café.

The other greenhouse holds mostly a variety of cacti, some of an interesting variety that I don’t recall ever having seen before. They had white, almost feathery prickles; if prickles are what you call them.

Outside, the gardens are planted profusely with beautiful flowers, along with a section with trees.

Winding paths make the space feel bigger than it is.

Despite being small, the Inverness Botanic Gardens is worth a visit, and not only because it’s free.