Catlodge

When I first woke-up and peeped through the curtains it was dull and grey but it wasn't long before the clouds began to thin, bringing the sun, blue skies and warmer temperatures. The first photo in this footprint was taken immediately before I left the nature reserve and by then it was a beautifully warm day. In fact it was better than warm because at times the van showed the outside temperature peaking at around 28c. That is hot for Scotland.

I didn't take all that many photos on the journey today mainly because every time the view was worth a photo, there was nowhere to pull over to take one. Generally, I thought the views today were just stunning and not really the views you'd expect to see in the UK - perhaps more like Sweden or Norway? This was without doubt Scotland at it's best and everywhere you looked it was a pleasure.

The last four photos were taken not all that far away from Ullapool. The mountains here looked so majestic in the intense light of the afternoon and was that a volcano just there? Undoubtedly the landscape of North West Scotland is born of volcanic activity but the most recent forces that sculpted the landscape here were the glaciers of the Ice Ages. Maybe that mountain is the a blend of volcano and glacier.

The final photo of this footprint was a scene that caught my eye and unusually there was a handy layby where I could stop for a photo. I thought the whole scene looked so picturesque but it was a small detail within it that made me stop - that small cluster of trees in the distance with the blue tones behind them. That was worthy of the Canon and its 300mm telephoto lens and hopefully it will turn out how I have imagined it.

One disadvantage of driving some distance on a warm day in Scotland is the number of flies splatted across the front of the vehicle. The windscreen will need some serious attention.Read more