Been looking forward to this weekend !, loaded up the van with the usual requirements for a weekend of photography, camping stove to make tea, tins of soup, wet weather gear ( just in case it rained ), battery chargers and a couple of magazines coz it's dark at 4 bells, picked up Spud with his 2 pairs of walking boots, 4 jackets, a padded body suit ( just in case we went to the North Pole instead ), another camping stove to heat the soup while we were boiling water for the tea and a couple of magazines coz it gets dark at 4 bells.
Thought we were going to get a good three days, the weather forecast was :- Good on Sat. / Overcast but dry on Sun. / Sunny on Mon. and Tues.
What actually happened was :- Good on Sat. as we were driving up 3.1/2 - 4 hours with a 2 hour stop north of Inverness for a bite to eat and a rummage around. / Overcast on Sun. until around 2 o clock when the sky cleared a bit to let the sun go down in style. / Overcast on Mon.with occasional rain showers until about 1/2 past 2 when the rain showers stopped and the sun came out for about 40 seconds. / Looked like it was going to be fine on Tues but it got windy, cloudy and it was raining although the sun did make an appearance for about 5 minutes when we were in the van.
Early rise on Sunday, first down for breakfast then made tracks north to the coast at Polbain, recommended to us before we left home, thanks Alan, some really old busted boats with bits and pieces from the salmon fishing days, moved up the coast to Reiff where the sea knows how to punish the coast and does it with style, this is where we stayed until the sun went down and Spud the colour junkie was happy to stay put until it was almost dark. Not a problem ! Sun. = Rab :- busted boats and Spud :- Sunset at Reiff.
Monday morning was the same routine, first up for breakfast and hit the road north to Loch Assyent, first of two stops was at the castle, we both set off up a hill in different directions, I was heading towards a derelict cottage and Spud was heading up the hill where he got a great view of the loch and castle with Quinag in the background and I got an OK picture of a broken house and an OK picture of a tree growing out of a cliff face. Next stop was tin of soup and cup of tea time about half way up the loch where Mother Nature was at her most cruel to us landscape photographers, went for a look about while the kettle was on and yes, fantastic light picking out a small tree laden island on a mirror flat loch but no camera equipment so we raced back to the van, grabbed our stuff and raced back to the water edge and we watched the light dying before our very eyes, we decided to wait it out as all good landscapers do and it started raining, we went for the afore mentioned soup and tea but the light never did return.
Tuesday was drive south day heading in the general direction of home with a major detour round by Gairloch, drove about 10 miles along a single track road to a place called Redpoint, it's not really a place more just a name on the map but it does have a lovely beach and we got a hole in the clouds while we were there so you have got to make the best of what you get and we stayed until the rain came back on. Driving down past Loch Maree flash back to Mon. at Loch Assynt,the sun glorious on the snow topped Slioch and Mother Nature shouting LOOK WHAT YOU'R MISSING BOYS ! parked up, hurried down to the loch side, pick your spot and bring on the clouds, starts raining, we wait it out, the rain goes off but the clouds are more stubborn then the clouds clear from Slioch but not from the sun, it's getting late ( 3 o clockish ), another one that got away, two in two days. Them's the breaks
