Glencoe or Bust.
(please mouse over all photographs)
What happens at sunset in Glencoe
| We went to Glencoe this year again for our holidays, doing it a second year in a row was no hardship. Instead of staying at Invercoe, the site we were on last time, we decided to try the caravan and camping site in Glencoe its self. We felt it would be quieter and indeed we were right. The toilet facilities were second to none and the camp site managers were as friendly as anyone could wish for. I kind of missed the loch and I felt caravans were well spaced out, which left a little to be desired by way of friendliness but we did have our privacy which is what I was after. The views.... well please mouse over this picture to see what happens at sunset on the mountains of Glencoe. These pictures were taken from outside my caravan. |  |
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Some friends came to visit us and we had a nice wee cheap day out in Ardgour. We drove to Inchree and left our cars in the car park at the bottom before boarding the Corran Ferry which is free to foot passengers. Its only a 5 min crossing but the views are stupendous. Weather wise this had been the best day of the holiday and a wee donder along Ardgour was quiet energetic enough. The views were all that we have come to expect from this area. My one regret is the camera can not capture the majesty and grandeur. There is a play of light on these scenes and it is beyond the technical ability of any camera to capture. There is a sense of timelessness in the hills which pervades everything, the views, the buildings, the sheep, the people. With that comes a sense of peace that reaches into your soul and caresses it. |
| As a townie from the industrial heartland of Scotland I am always blown away by how quiet the roads can be in the highlands. So quiet that the sheep wander aimlessly down through the town. My camera captured this lot outside a beautiful wee kirk. I tried hard to get some pictures of them in the same frame as the kirk so that I could make some funnies about the flock of this congregation. Sadly they wouldn’t oblige. The poser got cold feet and ran away just as I got into position. |  |
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We had lunch in The Inn, outside under the umbrellas. The menu was very definitely unassuming, disappointing even, but the food was delicious. An d watching the ferry come and go was just a wee piece of heaven. Then we shauchlt down to the lighthouse before heading back to the van. Dinner that night was for four in our awning. A steak-pie from the butchers in Fort William definitely one for the best of Scotland food page. Of course the excellent company helped the meal go down a treat. |
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A few days later the weather was not being too kind. We set off for Fort William for a boat trip out to see the seals. We went with Sea-Fari again, like the trip out to the Corrybhrechan a few years ago. The boat trip was certainly fun but the accompanying diatribe is certainly not how I want my country and culture represented. Why can’t tour guides take on board little historical facts like.... the Jacobite Rebellion was NOT a Scotland V England thing. Scotland has won medals for the UK at the Olympics and they weren’t for making whisky or getting bloottered. Still the English tourists found it histerical even if the Scots held their weeshts. After that we went for a wee hurl in the car and we met Alastair. Alastair gets a page all to himself , here.
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| That night, in the middle of the night, our awning blew down, we had to get up at half past one to rebuild it. We then spent the rest of the night worrying that it might come down again. So after a sleepless night we managed to get some steel pegs and get them driven into the ground. It was two bleary eyed travellers who set of the next day to go to Mallaig to gang “over the seas tae Skye”. |  |
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We had no time to wait to see the Hogworts express this year instead we caught it in Mallaig train station . Having photographed that we ate a picnic lunch before boarding the ferry..... the wrong ferry it has to be said but we did board the ferry.... to Rhumm. |
| Having discovered our error we got off... David insisted, I was for staying. Still the views of the Loch Nebhis as it sailed away were stunning. The RNLI were having a practice emergency in the harbour too. Some wonderful photo opportunities were provided, mostly from the viewing deck of the Skye ferry. |  |
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We landed in Armadale, in the Sleat area of Skye, we didn’t stay long, just long enough to enjoy this tropical garden in the North of Scotland and get sunburned. After that it was a fish supper in Mallaig, the best fish supper in Scotland if you don’t have the chips, and home.
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Tomorrow we are flittin to Ardgarten. With any luck it will be so boring there I will be able to get on with the paper I have to write. |  |
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