An Unexpected Journey

Following another delicious full Scottish (I do love a wee fry up - all the more when it's cooked by someone else) we brought down our bags to check out and met Chris behind the desk. A cheery fellow, it wasn't long before he was making chit chat and asking us where we'd been. Gitama mentioned the Westray debacle and up piped Chris, "I know where you can see puffins!" Almost immediately a twinkle returned to Gitama's eye and although her mouth was say "Oh, I dunno..." Those eyes were drilling into my head saying "We are going!" Chris was happy to oblige, logging onto his high speed internet connection and... wait! WTF! He's connected!!! Grrrrr.....

All Google map directed up we backtracked the way we came last night (allowing G the opportunity to see all the landscape she snoozed though the night before) to the top secret place where all the puffins live... allegedly! Still not totally convinced we headed across the peat bogs and boy am I glad I invested in a new pair of waterproof walking boots. There isn't so much a path as a trail of slightly higher ground which offers the drier approach. That's not to say we got it right all the way across and we still managed to submerge our feet a couple of times. Much to my delight though those boots stayed immune to the wet stuff. Before long we approached the prescribed stack to find...

PUFFINS!

Loads and loads of puffins. Tens nay hundreds of puffins. We had arrived at Puffin Hill. Alas it was a fair way away and even with the x2 extended 200mm lens the little guys were just too far away but Gitama was happy watching the little guys fly round the stack in squadrons. It was the most wonderful sight, something you just can't capture on film. You know, the shot you need one of those non-existent wide angled zoom lens for... or a massive print!

We wandered around the coast, our attention taken temporarily by the beautiful headland. Further round from Puffin Hill lay Gull Gorge, an oblong shaped stack at then end of an amazing wedge shaped crack in the cliff. Wonderfully positioned to shoot down the throat of the crack and to capture the waves crashing against the base. It was while wandering round past this and spotting another gorgeous two legged stack that I first noticed the puffins flying close to shore. It was only after minutes of trying unsuccessfully to capture these little Exocets of nature (the only successful shot is in my extras) that it dawned on me that they were heading somewhere close. I turned and saw a small group not far from me all looking in my direction. Happy days! I called out to G but she had wandered off in search of her own cluster.

After traversing the bog (slightly more successfully but still not completely dry) we headed back round the coast, stopping off for a tea and bun on the way. We passed by our starting point for the day in Bettyhill at around 12:30, some 3 hours after we left. And so ended our unexpected journey.

It was another glorious day as we travelled across the coast towards Ullapool, our stop for the night. I got the impression from Gitama that she was pretty impressed with the views and I have to say, having travelled this way just once before I've not tired of them either. I don't think I honestly could, given the beautiful weather we've had. I love that Scotland has shone her best for G's visit. We stopped off at a few of my favourite spots from my last trip, the Inverpolly Hills, Loch na Thull and Ceann na Beinne all before we turned the corner at Durness and headed south. A few slow downs and stops (and some glum faces) in the middle of the road as traffic permitted as we continued south, our next point of interest was at Loch Assynt where the ruins of the castle were resplendent as ever. A wee bit of a wait for the inevitable throng of tourists to clear on occasion but it was nice to visit again in this changed season. From there it was straight on through to Ullapool, once more stopping every now and again to allow G to shoot through the open window.

The Caledonian Hotel was a rabbit warren. Up and round, through the dusty bluebells to get to our room which I think was probably the furthest point from the entrance. After a relaxing lie down and refreshing cuppa we wandered down to the dinning room. The menu said Carvery but having only pork on the menu that at some point had to have been carved (the other options being lasagne and poached fish) the Carvery tag was a bit of a push to say the least. We should have taken this as a hint. Let's just say it filled a hole. Dinner done we retired to work on our back blips, some more successfully than others it has to be said... but at least I got the pictures posted.

Gitama's take on the day can be found here.