Adders, lizards and butterflies

A wonderful day today! Mrs M, Daughter One and I set off for Loch Arkaig, just west of the Great Glen and a couple of hours from here. It was a day out that Daughter One had been wanting to do for a while.
 
The day began bright and sunny and around 8am while waiting for a turn in the bathroom I wandered out on to the deck in my pyjamas. Although the deck itself was in shade, the sunlight was filtering through the trees on the bank opposite, glimpses of the sea were to be had faraway to my left and forty feet below me the road was silent. The only sound to be heard was the cry of a faraway bird and I thought just how lucky we are to live here.

The sky was cloudless and blue for a large part of the day, getting a bit cloudier in the afternoon, but still with good bursts of sunshine. We drove through Fort William, past the Commando Memorial at Spean Bridge and along the single track road to Loch Arkaig, stopping to photograph the beautiful waterfalls of Eas Chia-Aig, my Blip today.
 
We pushed on until we arrived at the Alt Mhuic Butterfly Reserve, the object of the trip. The path goes upwards from the road for about a mile, through native woodland including some of the biggest birches I’ve ever seen, crosses the burn and drops down on the other side, a walk of about an hour and a half. We didn’t see a huge variety of butterflies -  just three species, Speckled Wood, Scotch Argus and Meadow Brown. On the way down I spotted a Common Lizard scurrying over a warm rock and a pretty plump Adder sunbathing - both too quick to get pictures unfortunately! We returned to Loch Arkaig, my extra today. 
 
We had planned to visit the nearby Woodland Trust Community Forest, but having run out of time, after a few stops and side-tracks we returned to Fort William where we enjoyed a meal at the Thai restaurant, and came out to find it raining! Fortunately it didn’t last long and we arrived home after a very satisfying day!