A confession..after the early to bed and and early (5.00am) start to to the transfer day, I realised most of the way towards the ferry that my camera battery charger was still plugged in North Uist, whoops!
Trying to source a new one as we drove down the Isle of Skye was fruitless, I tried switching my laptop on at a free wifi point, that was dead too:-(( I knew all my photos were safe though, good backup strategy is vital!
Our cottage for the week.........
http://www.lochtorridon.co.uk/index.htm
Craig Cottage in a beautiful sheltered bay on the Applecross peninsula, to the north on Loch Torridon.
Unpacked and tired we settled down with a glass of something tasty, we soon had a taste of what the week would offer..
The pine marten seemed pleased to see us, it was important to keep behind the double glazed doors though, one scent of a human and they are off! What a great start to the second week...
On Sunday we ventured up a small hill, A Bairol is its name and it rises a stately 175m from sea level..
A view of the cottage from the top..
And a rare view of us too:-))
The hills behind are the Torridon giants, more later..
Later in the day we had quite a special visitor again on the decking...
The next day we had a drive round to iconic village of Applecross, with the number of tourists here maybe because of the name we had an immediate dislike, but we found a short walk that yielded a part fossilized tree..
And a nice river view...
And later we had our lovely visitor.....
Another day, more things to see....a black throated diver...
And a rusty old boat .................:-))
We found house martins:-))
And one of the family of pine martens visited again...
Next day a chaffinch appeared on a fence post..
The siskins on the feeders kept eluding me:-((
And then a wonderful otter spot in nearby bay....
Arctic terns taking a rare break, one is young one...
As the week went on we had one no marten show:-(( But views on on our very short drives made up for it!
Red breasted mergansers made occasional appearances:-))
And our friend the wood mouse kept us entertained:-))
Beinn Alligin looked superb..
An otter appeared almost by magic..
A memorable experience indeed!
What a great start to our last day, a short drive and we found a lovely close look at a razorbill..
And a hunting heron with a prize..
We found a redpoll...
Our last day should be special, a buzzard hanging like kestrel was good...
The view up Loch Torridon was good...
What I think is Liathach would have been a target a few years ago:-))
And the wee wood mouse kept appearing...
A willow warbler nearly sang me to sleep:-))
And the gorgeous pine marten appeared as if to say goodbye........
What a brilliant memory to carry in the mind on the way home, a long journey but sometimes we travel into our souls to search out what there is in life that enthuses us, this two and a bit week holiday certainly topped our enthusiasm levels up!! Cheers and thanks to all who read and look, it makes the work in doing the blog very worthwhile.
