Lucky
enough to have been in the north west again for a couple of weeks.
Most
of our visits start with a flight to Inverness. EasyJet comes in for a
fair bit of criticism and there are no frills, but the flight is
short and cheap. However, this time we travelled on the Caledonian Sleeper on
a deal which was only slightly more expensive than a flight.
I'd
suggest anyone travelling from the south has a look for the deals on
the Sleeper. The cabins are small but the whole experience was very
good.
Crossing the bridge over the river Findhorn a few miles south of Inverness.
The weather in north west Scotland in late winter can be very rough but also excellent and there were some really sunny days and good sunsets.
Big Sand village from the beach
Sunset over Longa Island
Beinn Airgh Charr from Loch Tollaidh
A rock formation at Mellon Udrigle across Gruinard Bay towards Beinn Ghobhlach
The
wildlife was also good again; most of it was not rare but it was good
to have lots of views of the regulars - curlews, oystercatchers,
eiders, hooded crows, buzzards, siskins, coal tits, greenfinches,
goldfinches, bullfinches. We were also lucky enough to see a white
tailed eagle flying over the house.
The
wildlife highlights were the visits from pine martens. Pine martens
are fairly common in the area but we were visited every night of our stay. Most of the visits were caught on a trail camera and, while
seeing a pine marten can never be guaranteed, with patience
(and a regular supply of peanut butter and jam sandwiches) around
here the chances of a view are high. The pine marten
in this photo was not very concerned when I opened the back door or
lay down about six feet away ....
... and the trail camera caught this one night.
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