Grantchester Sunday

Nice walk in the easter sun!

I haven’t had as nice a walk in this in a long time. Radio 3 in the ears. Long lens. Nowhere to be. Random bat. Glorious.

Bronze

Very little of interest here except…. I keep coming back to it. (Soap bubbles in the washing up, FYI).

Skye - Day 5

Nope.

Skye - Day 4

Sorry to bang on, but this is just another of those miles of mountains I keep driving past.

Leathad na Steiseig. But could me any one of a million peaks…

Trying to allow a little serendipity into my life; because I suck the joy out of everything with my logistic anxieties.

Eilean Nan Each

BANG! Serendipity! Eilean Nan Each. An island spotted next to a church with a handy car park.

Eilean Nan Each

Drove round the loop road through Ord. It was indeed gorgeous, but I grew more interested in the animals than the overwhelming landscape wows.

Sheep at Òb Ghabhsgabhaig. A real place.

Cow in the woods near Tokavaig

I just liked this guy. After a lunch of a large salad in order to stave off the worse of the effects of Scottish* cuisine, I decided to brave the tourist trap of the Fairy Pools. Quite nice…

Fairy Pools least significant waterfall

… except ten minutes further up the road and after a significantly easier walk, you find the tallest waterfall on Skye - and you get it to yourself.

Eas Môr

I don’t know how to take photos of waterfalls and convey the scale. I think it is impossible. Without a banana.

Lastly, I indulged my creative bent and took this image of Sgurr nan Gobhar.

Sgurr nan Gobhar

Easily my favourite picture from the day. Royston Photographic Society will not be surprised.

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*my

Skye - Day 3

Absolute white-out this morning. Braved the snow and wind for a walk.

Scotland

After breakfast the snow had mostly stopped and so I braved the icy peaks of the Storr to visit the Old Man.

The Old Man of Storr

Needle Rock | Old Man of Storr

Loch Leathan | Isle of Raasay | Wester Ross

And then… and THEN!…. Rubha Hunish. The northernmost tip of Skye - a small low promontory below enormous basalt cliffs. An absolute treat and worth the five-mile hike and precipitous climb down.

Precipitous climb down

Rubha Hunish

Rubha Hunish

Rubha Hunish Coastguard

Skye - Day 2

Really cold and wet. Bah.

Loch Fada

Bride’s Veil Falls

It was so wet and cold this morning that all I managed was to gather these three things from The Braes. If you mix them in Doodle God you get Skye.

Skye - Day 1

First place I went to once actually on Skye… and it was closed for construction work. However it was Sunday so I jumped the fence. Impossible to take pictures of this with my expensive camera and lenses so this was a drone. I have a feeling this will be a pattern.

And then on to Quiraing, a collection of features in the Trotternish Ridge escarpment. It was early, it was dark, it’s miles down a very dodgy track, I was the only one there, and the weather was closing in. So I took a couple of pics and chickened out back to the car with snow in my boots.

The Needle

The Needle. What a scary climb up to this in the snow…. Just behind it is the Prison and just behind me is the Table, but bugger them; all I could think of was sliding to my death. Hopefully I can come back later in the week if the weather improves.

Dawn over the north-east coast

After Quiraing, piss-wet through and freezing I went home to dry my clothes and have lunch to find - a two-hour island-wide power cut. Sat in front of the fire eating a cheese sandwich.

Dunvegan Castle

Early evening and I drove an hour to take this picture with the wrong lens, in the wrong weather and with the wrong amount of enthusiasm. I imagine in a dusky summer sun it looks fab. For a castle. Castles are boring. The walk wasn’t though…. My guide-book said “Go through the gate next to the road sign to Claigan” which was a euphemism for “Climb over the locked and barbed-wire-topped gate with the sign saying Beware Of The Bull” (and then over two more fences.) Wasn’t worth it.

Neist Point

Notable according to my guide (post-bridge) as the furthest west part of the UK you can drive to, which rather depends on where you start. Bloody London metropolitan elites…! Another drone-shot. What did I say…?

Skye - Day 0 - A82

So here’s the important thing to learn, as I did, when driving the A82 through the Highlands. Don’t drive towards parking places trying to decide whether or not to stop. Stop. Then decide whether or not to get out. It saves a lot of last-minute swerving/braking/crashing. It doesn’t half extend the journey time, but I think it’s worth it…

Lochan na h-Achlaise Viewpoint

Lochan na h-Achlaise was just round the bend from Loch Tulla and I found two other photographers creeping out on the ice. I took mine dead quick and buggered off pronto.

Loch Cluanie

Eilean Donan Castle

BSL Test II

A few more sign language trial images…