A Day at Elgol

 For the first time in this trip we had rain overnight and an overcast, but still very warm day. A scratch breakfast in our room was followed by excellent coffee and cake in Sky Skyns at the back of the car park and then it was time to hit the single track roads again from Broadford to Elgol, a tiny harbour at the road head with superb views across Loch Scavaig to the Cuillan Hills. Although I had been grumbling about brassy blue skies which were horrbile for landscape photography, I was now confronted by too much cloud over the mountains. Photographers are never happy with the light. Still, there is no such thing as bad light, just light. Or so the saying goes - usually by someone who is not taking photographs. There were boats buzzing backwards and forwards across the loch and a cruise ship: Adventure Canada, anchored on the far side. After I had completed my photography we enjoyed sitting in our chairs with a packup and watching the world go by. Just as we were leaving a small fishing boat we had been watching came in to land its catch: masses of crabs and lobsters. The fisherman was very chatty as he looked for a single crayfish in a box full of lobsters, destined for the seafood shack above the harbour, along with some lobsters and crabs. He said that, although a small proportion of his catch went to local restaurants, the majority went abroad. How sad!

Returning to Portree, we indulged in the most magnificent fish and chips which we ate sitting on the harbour wall.

Bla Bheinn from the Elgol Road.

Bla Bheinn from the Elgol Road.

Bla Bheinn across Loch Slapin

The Cuillin from Elgol

The Cuillin from Elgol

The Cuillin from Elgol

The Cuillin from Elgol

The Cuillin from Elgol

The Cuillin from Elgol

The Cuillin from Elgol

The Cuillin from Elgol

The catch

The Cuillin from Elgol

Harbour detail

The Cuillin from Elgol

Portree Harbour

Scotland 2015. Day 4, Glen Shiel.

An excellent day today: one of fantastic light interspersed with torrential showers and gale force winds.  We had a fairly relaxed start after the last three hectic days, but were ready when Peter and Linda arrived from the nearby Youth Hostel where they are staying.  Despite it pouring with rain, the forecast was for heavy showers rather than persistent rain so we decided to carry on with our original plan and go over to Skye.  By the time we reached picturesque Eilean Donan castle (famously featuring in the initial sequences of the film Highlander) the rain had stopped and the sun began to appear.  Once over the impressive Skye Bridge we were soon at Broadford and turned on to the winding single track road to Elgol.  The shores of Loch Slapin not only gave us great views of Blaven, an outlier of the 6 mile long Coulin ridge, but also proved an excellent spot for birdwatching.  Here, as elsewhere, were plentiful wheatears showing their white rumps as they flitted  low over the ground, cuckoos could be heard and one was spotted on a telegraph wire.  On the shore were unusually tame oystercatchers, common sandpipers and ringed plovers but the piece de resistance was the fabulous summer plumage black-throated diver out on the loch.  As we crested the hill above Elgol Rum,Eigg and Canna appeared to float over the turquoise waters of the Minch with Soay tucked into Loch Scavaig.  As we dropped into the small fishing hamlet the Coulin brooded under a lowering sky across the Loch.  What a great spot.
Returning to Broadford we headed north up the coast to Sigachain with excellent views of the islands of Scalpay and Raasay.  At the famed Sligachain Bridge we stopped for photographs of Sgurr Nan Gillian before carrying on to The Old Man of Storr, passing through Portree.  On the way back we stopped for tea in The Sligachain Hotel and Peter and I revelled in the memorabilia and associations with mountaineer Norman Collie.
Back at the site we had an exciting half hour rescuing friends Mary and Les's awning from the 50 mph winds before retiring to the local hostelry for a meal.

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