Dawn to dusk…

Posted on September 30, 2018 by nigelyoungblog

Peatswood sunrise

Even though I’ve been retired for some time now, it’s not often I choose to go out taking photos all day – I’m not that keen on going out on a group trip, and other interests tend to take precedence, so its usually only a few hours at a time.

Yesterday was therefore a little unusual. I got up early, and could see some nice colours in the early morning sky, so popped out, literally through the front door and across into the field opposite, for a few pre-sunrise photos using the trusty Sony A7iii. Compositionally this spot is limited, but I do like the way the track recedes towards the trees.

Vendor – Street Market

After a few jobs around the house we went out for a bike ride, and noticed that there was a mini food festival on in town, so nipped back afterwards to see what was worth photographing. I’m not a great one for street photography – I think it can be quite intrusive, and I’m so so bored with the ‘person looking at their phone’ shots which seem to make up most street photo shots I see on-line. Nevertheless it was chance to try my new (to me) ‘travel camera’ – a Sony A6300. Although it’s much smaller than the A7 series, it works in much the same way, and usefully I can use my A7 lenses on it, so it will make a good backup should anything go awry with the beast. I quite like mono for street photos, so it was a chance to see how that worked out.

Ramshaw Rocks

Back home after an hour or so, and chance to do some cooking and other bits and pieces (usual Saturday stuff…) but I could see the sunset promised to be decent, so late afternoon headed off to one of my favourite spots – The Roaches and Ramshaw Rocks, which are the closest part of the Peak District to us.
The sun was already low in the sky when I got there, so decided to go to Ramshaw Rocks as its only a couple of minutes walk from the nearest parking – the decent spots at The Roaches all involve a good 20 mins walk and I was afraid I would miss the best light if I attempted that.

Ramshaw Rocks and The Roaches

Anyway, Ramshaw was fairly quiet – just one other serious photographer there, standing on one of the outcrops, and I got a couple of decent shots with him in the frame – a human adds a nice sense of scale to landscapes. Then just a few minutes to take some shots of the rocks and the last of the heather as the light faded, before heading home. It’s almost an hour each way to get there, but well worth it for the scenery at this relatively little known spot.

Home in time for a late dinner, and a well deserved glass of wine, before editing the photos from my 3 photo sessions of the day!

A walk in the woods…

Posted on September 14, 2018 by nigelyoungblog

View from our balcony…

Our early autumn short break brings us back to one of my favourite places on Planet Earth – the Lake District. Specifically we are staying at the Brimstone Hotel, on the Langdale Estate, just outside Ambleside. Its a superb place – just 16 rooms, set aside from the main hotel here, but with full facilities and its own exclusive spa. Best of all is the ‘Reading Room’ – a kind of executive lounge with complimentary tea, coffee, snacks, beer, wine and soft drinks all day. Its a beautifully quiet spot, perfect for relaxing after a walk around the dales.

Ready to shoot!

So yesterday I ventured out on my own for a couple of hours with my camera gear. The hotel is surrounded by woods, and there is a river (Langdale Beck) just behind. So it wasn’t exactly far to go, and my short stroll through the woods and along the river turned up several beautiful locations for photos. Although it was a fairly bright day, the shade meant using the tripod for most shots and there were opportunities for some nice long exposures of the water. I didn’t need to use a ND filter at all – just a polariser to cut through some of the reflections.

The weir at Chapel Stile

With my camera set up on the tripod and ISO set to 100, lens stopped down to f11 or f16, I was good to go. These photos are RAW files pretty much straight from camera, with the shadows lifted a little, and a little bit of ‘punch’ from adding clarity in Lightroom. I’ll probably tweak them a little more when I get them loaded onto my desktop as editing on a tiny 12″ laptop screen is never terribly satisfactory, but it gives me a good idea of how they should turn out.

All in all a very pleasant afternoon out and about, and a few photos I’m happy with. What’s not to like!

Gear used: Sony A7iii with 16-35mm or 24-70mm lens, Formatt-Hitec Firecrest polariser, Gitzo Mountaineer tripod.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

A sunny day in Wales…

Posted on August 28, 2018 by nigelyoungblog

Seafront – Aberdovey

Contrary to popular belief, it doesn’t always rain in Wales – just most of the time! But when the sun shines, it’s glorious, especially by the sea. Here in Shropshire we are actually quite close to Wales, but about as far from the sea as it’s possible to get – it’s well over 2 hours drive through mid-Wales to the coast (a little closer to the North Wales coast, but you have to pick your spots there.)

The only ‘crocs’ you’ll find here!

We do love the sea, so despite the fact it was still school holiday time, we decided to take a trip to our favourite haunt, Aberdovey. After a fairly grim journey – not holiday traffic, just the dreaded roadworks – we arrived to glorious sunshine in Aberdovey around noon. Although it was the middle of the holidays, there were still a few car parking spaces on the seafront car park, so that’s where we settled. It’s a typical seaside town, with a harbour, pretty-painted houses along the seafront, a few decent pubs and the usual seaside shops – buckets and spades, and a few gift/clothing shops. And the beach of course – beautiful fine sand all the way from the road and car park, right down to the sea itself. Then there are the views – across the Dyfi estuary to Ynyslas (more later!), across sand dunes, and with the hills as a backdrop – what’s not to like on a sunny day?

Fish & chips from Shelleys

A quick paddle in the sea (no Mediterranean temperatures here), and chance to also take a few photos. Then the highlight of any trip to the seaside – fish and chips! Only one chip shop in Aberdovey – Shelleys, on the seafront, but definitely up with the best (as evidenced by the queue out of the doors and up the street…) Well worth the wait, we came out with our fish and chips and settled on a bench overlooking the beach to scoff them. Wary of the seagulls that were ready to pounce, I kept a very close eye on mine! And good they were too – 10 out of 10 for taste, and pretty good value too.

The sand dunes of Ynyslas Nature Reserve

M reminded me that as a child she went to Borth – just across the estuary, so off we set. It’s a bit of a drive – back into Machynlleth, then south towards Aberystwyth, before picking up the coast road again. Borth itself isn’t that special (not to me anyway) – its a bit of a sprawl along the beach road, and for most of it you can’t really see the sea as there is a huge concrete seawall holding back the stoney beach. Anyway, we backtracked and found the spot that M remembered – Ynyslas. There was the caravan site where she stayed and the sand dunes she crossed to get to the sandy beach. A long time ago!

Mr Whippy ’99’ ice cream

We parked at the very end of the road, right on the beach (it floods at high tide, so watch out!). Fabulous views back across the estuary to Aberdovey, and then we took a walk through the sand dunes (now a very well organised nature reserve.) More great views from the top of the sand dunes!

After partaking of that other Great British Seaside Tradition – a Mr Whippy ’99’ ice cream – it was time to turn our back on the sea and head home. What a great day, and it didn’t rain once!

Aberdovey (from Ynyslas Beach)

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Here we go again…

Posted on July 12, 2018 by nigelyoungblog

Daisy-Mae 85mm f1.8

There were so many things I loved about my two Olympus cameras, but ultimately I just didn’t find the overall image quality satisfying. The Pen-F was retro-chic, and had knock-out features like keystone correction, and Livetime mode (great for long exposures), and with smaller prime lenses gave me real portability. The E-M1ii added pro-quality construction and ergonomics, Pro-capture for fast moving action, blazingly fast AF, and battery life that rivalled good old DSLR cameras.

Without doubt these cameras are superb for sport and wildlife (because the 2x crop factor brings subjects in that much closer) and there is a great array of compact and reasonably priced lenses available. Sadly only the c. £1k Pro lenses make the best of the cameras (and these lenses are no longer small!) but even then, for me, images just didn’t have the ‘punch’ or saturation of cameras with larger sensors. In poor light, or high contrast subjects where recovering detail from shadows is needed, they really fall down.

Sony 85mm f1.8

So, even though it means going back to a larger, heavier setup and foregoing some of those unique Olympus features, the whole kit has gone, and the new kid on the block is a Sony A7iii. Resolution at 24mpx is a little higher, but this is a full frame camera so a sensor four times the size, and that really shows in image quality. I can’t say I care for the Sony ergonomics – the body has lots of squared off corners – it just isn’t as ‘organic’ as the E-M1ii, and the button and menu layout aren’t exactly intuitive, but it does have great battery life, and the AF is ‘good enough’ for what I want. From all accounts its not as well weather sealed as the E-M1ii so I definitely won’t be taking it out in the rain!

Sony 28-70mm ‘kit’ lens

Although my camera came with a fairly basic ‘kit’ zoom lens (it was the only way to get it quickly) my plan is to just use this for ‘walkabout’ or casual shooting, and get prime lenses for anything ’serious’. I’ve made a conscious decision to use just prime lenses with a limited range of focal lengths rather than wide-ranging zoom lenses – I’m hoping that rather than limit what I can shoot, it will actually enhance my creativity. Without doubt it will mean sharper and crisper images – something of a holy grail for me.

Sony 85mm f1.8

So far, in addition to that ‘cheapo’ everyday zoom, I’ve picked up the 85mm f1.8 Sony FE medium telephoto lens, a general purpose 35mm f2.8 Sony Zeiss lens, and a Zeiss Batis 25mm f2.8 wide angle. This latter lens was one I tried a few months ago at a Sony event, and the sharpness and contrast blew me away. Still on the shopping list is a Sony Zeiss 55mm f1.8, but that is waiting for more funds!

All is looking good so far, and these are just a few photos I’ve taken in the week or so I’ve had the camera. Watch this space!

Coast and City…

Posted on May 19, 2018 by nigelyoungblog

Perch Rock Lighthouse

Last week I had the opportunity to spend a few spare hours in the Liverpool area, so decided to check out the lighthouse at Perch Rock, New Brighton. This lighthouse has stood at the mouth of the River Mersey since 1830 and was only decommissioned in 1973. I misjudged the tides, and with the tide almost fully in when I got there, I wasn’t able to walk out to the lighthouse itself, but had to be content with taking photos from the edge of the promenade. A stiff breeze meant there were waves 3-4 ft high, so it very much suited a long exposure treatment. Locking down the ISO to 64, and using a 10 stop filter gave me a decently long exposure, and I was pretty pleased overall with the result.

Tate Liverpool

From here I used the Wallasey Tunnel to ‘pop’ into Liverpool and spent an hour or so around the Albert Dock area. I’ve taken photos before of the hundreds of padlocks affixed to the railings on the edge of the dock, but there are now so many its virtually impossible to get a ‘clean’ shot of the padlocks. However the railings around the entrance to the Merseyside Maritime Museum were nicely lit by the afternoon sun, and made a good ‘frame’ for the sign outside the Liverpool Tate Museum. A wide-ish aperture softened the lettering on the sign, and created some useful separation.

Museum of Liverpool

With construction work going on, there are barriers up all around the iconic front elevation of the Museum of Liverpool just now, so I had to be happy with a reflection of the The Three Graces in the picture windows at the end of the building.

Given that I only had a couple of hours altogether, and was ‘traveling light’ with just one lens (12-40mm on my Olympus E-M1ii) and a couple of round filters I was pleased with the results from the afternoon.

North Coast 500 Adventure – Part 5 (the end!)

Posted on May 16, 2018 by nigelyoungblog

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA We had booked a couple of nights at Bunchrew House Hotel, just outside Inverness, as we had missed Inverness out at the start of our trip. Turned out to be a very good choice – excellent food, comfortable room, great service etc, but the highlight was the choice of gins in the bar. Upwards of 50, all Scottish, and many I hadn’t even seen before let alone tried! Just had to try the recommended ‘gin flight’ – 3 different ‘island’ gins and a bottle OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA of tonic, all served with the recommended garnishes etc. With a couple of other pre and post dinner drinks over the two days, I think that took my tally of new gins for the trip up to about 15… Great views from the hotel over the Beauly Firth, including a spectacular sunset. Definitely recommend this hotel!

Next up was Rogie Falls – half an hour outside Inverness, with a pleasant mile or so woodland walk down to some pretty, EM120867_DxO if not particularly high falls. A handy wooden footbridge across the falls gave the best view, even if it did make me feel sick looking down (there was worse to come later that day!)

Not strictly on the NC500 route, we were keen to see Glen Afric, as it was touted as one of the prettiest glens in the Highlands – perhaps a little oversold, it was indeed beautiful (even in the rain, our first for quite a few days) but maybe not the very best views we had seen. Someone had also recommended we visited Plodda Falls, which we found after quite a long diversion, the last mile of so over an extremely rough forest track – not at all comfortable in a very low car with hard suspension… Fortunately the rain abated and we took the short walk through the Douglas Firs down to the falls – very pleasant I thought, but not exactly exciting, until I heard the roar of water and realised there was more a further few yards away. OMG! – walking out onto a cantilevered viewing platform you are right over the edge of the main falls which drop some EM120885_DxO 40metres – talk about scary! The whole structure was shaking (or was it just me?) Absolutely incredible, and there are several other falls all coming into the same point, before the river rushes on. If you’ve got time, you can follow a path all the way to the base of the falls, but when in full flow (as they were when we were there) the spray will soak anyone on the path.

No visit to Inverness would be complete without a visit to Ffordes – the largest seller of used camera gear in the UK. Very tempting, and most helpful staff, but I managed to get out with my wallet unscathed, but there is always on-line…

Commando Memorial

That really was the last of our journey on the NC500 proper, so the next day we headed south along the shores of Loch Ness, making the usual stops in search of Nessie – no sightings, but lots of tourists out and about by now. As we’d not had chance to stop there on an earlier trip to the Highlands, we visited the Commando Memorial at Spean Bridge – erected in the early 1950s as a tribute to the commandos who served in WW2. An imposing 5m high monument on a small hill, the bronze statue of 3 commando comrades looks out towards Ben Nevis and has a sombre but uplifting atmosphere.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA And so down through Fort William and into Glencoe with a brief side trip along Glen Etive in search of more deer (no luck, just some crazy kayakers shooting the rapids). As it was Saturday, and the sun was shining, the A82 was unbelievably busy, with every car park/stopping place rammed, so we just headed straight on without further stops to the hotel on Loch Lomond where our whole adventure began. A beautiful late afternoon stroll along the loch into Luss – such a pretty little village. Woke next morning to the best sunrise we had seen all trip – and all from the comfort of the balcony outside our room. A great finish to what had been a fantastic trip.

I had done quite a lot of research before our trip, but here are a few points which may help if you plan to do the NC500 any time soon:

1. The ‘best’ bits for me were along the west coast, so try to allow at least 3-4 days to cover that part of the trip, even if you do from Tongue/John O’Groats to Inverness in 2 days. We went clockwise around the route, but going the other way would be just as good!

2. Consider going in April/early May to avoid the worst of the crowds and the infamous midges (I guess mid-October/early November would be good too.) Book hotels well ahead as they are busy even at that time the year.

3. Don’t miss out the Bealach Na Bar/Applecross or Lochinver ‘circuits’ – for me they were the best bits!

Kylesku Bridge

4. Keep your car well-filled with fuel – there are some long stretches without service (gas) stations. Likewise if you need to eat during the day, plan ahead – it wasn’t always easy to find places for lunch.

5. If you like a ‘wee dram’ remember that the drink-drive alcohol limits in Scotland are much lower than the rest of the UK. Likewise, watch the speed limits, especially on faster main roads like the A9 and A82 and around towns, and do give way to following traffic on the single lane with passing place sections.

So thanks for sticking with me – what was going to be a two part blog ended up being five, but then it was almost a two week trip, and the 500 mile advertised route ended up almost 1700 miles door to door for us! But boy, was it worth it! We had a great time, saw some amazing scenery, stayed in fab hotels, ate some fantastic food, and met some really welcoming and friendly people, and a few Highland ‘coos’ too!

Here are a few last photos for now – when I get round to editing them all, I’ll add them to the relevant posts.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

North Coast 500 Adventure – Part 4

Posted on May 14, 2018 by nigelyoungblog

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA Tongue Hotel turned out to be a good choice (to be fair there aren’t many hotels around here anyway!) – one of our fellow guests was BBC’s Jeremy Paxman, so we figured if it was ok for him, then it was ok for us. A (relatively) early start next morning as we had to be in Dunnet Bay by 11am for our pre-booked tour of the Dunnett Bay Distillery – home of Rock Rose, one of our favourite gins. Our tour (we were the only ones there) took almost an hour and a half, and we learned so much about the gin process, helped along by sampling several of their products! Definitely worth a stop if you are passing that way, and well worth the £12 pp cost.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA We briefly stopped at the Castle of Mey, one time summer holiday home of the Queen Mother – it was pretty busy there and we only needed to use the loo, so onward… Interestingly, the whole physical geography changed along here – although there were cliffs all along the coastline, just inland it was pretty flat, and the harsh gorse and heather landscape changed to mostly pasture. Lots of abandoned ‘crofts’ – apparently dating back to the Highland Clearances of the 18th and 19th centuries where tenants were evicted in favour of land being used for sheep grazing.

And so we arrived at John O’Groats, not actually the most northerly point of the UK mainland, but pretty close, and home to that famous sign for the obligatory photograph. Rather like Lands End (by co-incidence we had been there only a few weeks earlier) it was a place to say you had visited, then move promptly on! A couple of miles away is Duncansby Head, yet another lighthouse, and the cliffs are home to thousands of nesting seabirds.

Ackergill Tower

From this furthest-most point on our trip, it was time to head south now, just a few miles to our next overnight stop – Ackergill Tower, just outside Wick. A genuine castle this time, built around 1475 and pretty much in continuous occupation since then, it is now a 33 room hotel standing right next to the sea. Billed as a luxury hotel (and priced accordingly) it almost lived up to our expectations… First up – a seriously imposing building – a big solid stone facade, with towers and turrets etc, and cannons outside the entrance! We ventured to the top of the tower – three flights of stairs up, and then up a narrow spiral stone staircase and out onto the battlements. Given my fear of heights I think I did pretty well. Our bedroom was comfortable, and both the drawing room and huge vaulted dining room were impressive to say the least with wood panelling, plasterwork and huge pictures of the landed gentry former residents. The food was good (we had booked dinner, bed and breakfast) and although the service was reasonably good, it lacked the polish of other hotels we stayed in on our trip. What did amuse us was the music playing in the dining room – a little CD player in the corner, playing a single CD of popular Scottish music, over and over again. Fair enough, although it was weird hearing ‘Auld Lang Syne’ at breakfast in April!

Dunrobin Castle

Heading out next day, it was mostly cliffs, beaches and rolling countryside, with a few stops to take in the views. Dunrobin Castle, with 189 rooms the largest castle in Northern Scotland, was our next stop. If you don’t want to tour the building itself, there is a path that takes you down to the shore, and this offers fine views of the exterior.

Passing the village of Tain (the home of Glenmorangie), and the ‘parked’ oil rigs in Nigg Bay, we stopped at the Storehouse of Foulis (another recommendation) for lunch – good food and reasonably priced too.

We spent a good hour at Chanonry Point, just outside Inverness on the Black Isle, as this was recommended for dolphin watching, but alas there were none – the best times are apparently later in the summer, on a rising tide, so that will have to wait until another visit. A beautiful and peaceful spot nevertheless with views across to Fort George on the other side of Cromarty Firth, and down to Inverness (and another lighthouse of course!)

Duncansby Head

Chanonry Point

Castle of Mey

Abandoned Croft

North Coast 500 Adventure – Part 3

Posted on May 8, 2018 by nigelyoungblog

Achmelvich Beach

Our next couple of days were spent exploring the beaches, lochs and hills around Lochinver – part of the ‘official’ NC500 route, but definitely not recommended for larger camper vans! Some of the nicest scenery we saw all trip here… Just outside Lochinver, Achmelvich is well signposted, and like all the beaches we visited, has good free parking and easy accessibility down to the beach. Truly beautiful and the whitest sand you will see on any beach in the UK, with rocks and cliffs to explore and get a higher viewpoint. From here it was just a few miles further on to Clachtoll beach – just off the road, and with a camping and caravan site close by. Despite that, at 11am we were the only people on the beach!

Stoer Lighthouse We next took a lengthy diversion to the lighthouse near Stoer Point – more great views and the option to walk the 2 miles to Stoer Point for the more adventurous. Very rural around here – lots of derelict farmhouses and agricultural machinery, and one (working) smallholding had a dead fox hung up on the fence by the house! Needless to say we didn’t hang around here for long…

Secret Tea Garden Getting peckish by then we were on the lookout for a nice spot for our picnic lunch (ordered from the hotel the night previous) and found yet another glorious beach, just by the side of the road at Clashnessie. Just a few steps down onto the beach, spread out the picnic blanket on the white sand, nicely sheltered from the wind by the sand dunes and we were made up! Like most of our trip, the weather was again dry, and it was great to feel the sun on our faces. Come mid-afternoon, we found ourselves in the village of Drumbeg – great views again out to sea, and we found a quirky little spot for an afternoon cuppa – the Secret Tea Garden. With a delightful little patio seating area, and home made cakes, what’s not to like! Just worth noting – the place doesn’t have a loo, so best stop at the public facilities at the viewpoint in Drumbeg Village just up the road…

Ardvreck Castle

More very narrow and steep roads took us back to the main road near Unapool, and back via the shores of Loch Assynt to our hotel. After this very hectic and actually quite tiring day, we were glad to spend the next day checking out the beaches again!

Our next stop on our way north was Ardvreck Castle – just a ruin now, but superbly positioned overlooking Loch Assynt – definitely worth exploring and a good spot for photos. On then to Kylesku, and its beautiful curved bridge. Kylesku Bridge From here it’s up to Scourie, and although the beach was ‘so-so’, the rocky headland was well worth exploring and we saw many different sea birds. Earlier in the trip, some friendly visitors we got talking to had recommended we find the beach at Oldshoremore, just outside Kinlochbervie, so that was our next stop. Kinlochbervie itself was pretty unimpressive – just a working fishing port, but the beach we were looking for was awesome! With the tide out, it must have been a good 200 yards from sand dunes down to the sea, and I guess the beach was over a mile wide – again with rocky headlands at each end. During the hour or so we were there, we only saw 2 other people on the beach. Fair to say that the beaches in Scotland are truly superb!

Kyle of Tongue & Ben Loyal

A quick spot of lunch at The Old School restaurant near Kinlochbervie – a characterful place with good food and drink (and it has rooms too apparently), and back onto the main route towards the far north west. After several more stops to take in the views of lochs, sea and mountains, we decided to skip the detour to Cape Wrath, and press on to our next hotel. Stunning views all the way – my favourite view from this part of the trip was from the causeway over the Kyle of Tongue, looking across to Ben Loyal.

near Clachtoll

near Durness

near Scourie

Kylesku

Ardvreck Castle

Secret Tea Garden

No ensuite here!

North Coast 500 Adventure – Part 2

Posted on May 1, 2018 by nigelyoungblog

Loch Maree from Glen Docherty

After our hair-raising drive around the Applecross Peninsula, it was time for something a little more leisurely, so for our next day we didn’t stray far. We started in the quant village of Kinlochewe, with its brightly painted cafe, and took the short diversion up to the viewpoint at Glen Docherty, which affords wonderful views over Loch Maree, the third largest loch in Scotland. Then we took the single track (main!) road a little further north along Loch Maree to the beautiful sandy beach at Gairloch – there’s easy parking by the church/cemetry and a boardwalk down to the beach. What a wonderful beach!

Next up, we took a short diversion off the official NC500 route to Badachro as we had seen signs promising a decent pub for lunch. Although the views over the harbour from the pub lounge were great, and the bar had a good selection of drinks (including the local gin), sadly the food was a little disappointing and ‘mine host’ was rather overbearing!

After another night at our hotel, where we tried their rather less fancy and more reasonably priced Torridon 1887 Pub for dinner, it was on the road again. Next real place of interest was Loch Ewe, used in WW2 as the start point for many of the ill-fated North Atlantic convoys. Apart from the remains of some fortifications, there is currently a NATO refuelling depot there which rather spoils the view over the loch! Next along the route was Gruinard Bay, with its beautiful panoramic views out towards the Summer Isles, before a drive alongside the heavily wooded Little Loch Broom, across some spectacularly deserted moorland, before down to the sea again at Ullapool.

Just another beach…

Rather than take the ‘official’ route straight up to Assynt and our next hotel at Lochinver, we elected to take ‘minor’ roads there (heck even the ‘major’ roads are often single track with passing places!) and what an afternoon it was. Passing the base of the impressive Stac Pollaidh (pron. Stack Polly) mountain, we reached Loch Oisgaig, another spot where the freshwater lochs virtually meet the sea, and a lovely little peninsula that directly overlooks the Summer Isles. More beautiful beaches and viewpoints around Polbain, some quite isolated properties (both old and new) but a wonderful sense of peace – if ever I go missing, you will know where to start looking for me!

Summer Isles, from Polbain

To be honest, we could have stayed there forever, but our hotel, Inver Lodge, beckoned so on we went through beautiful Inverkirkaig and onto our base for the next couple of days.

Lochinver, from Inver Lodge

Built in 1986, this is definitely not the prettiest hotel you’ll find in Scotland (it looks more like a residential home or golf clubhouse!) but perched as it is on a hill above Lochinver, it has fabulous views over the harbour and surrounding area from every room and certainly delivers! We stayed for 3 nights (they frequently have a 3 for 2 offer on accommodation) and enjoyed great service and fabulous food – it has an ‘Albert Roux’ restaurant and we tried his signature Soufflé Suissesse starter – delicious, rather like ‘floating islands’, but with cheese sauce instead of cremé anglaise… Another opportunity to try some local artisan gins too – looking at the selection on offer there will soon be as many Scottish gins available as whisky!

Gruinard Bay and the Summer Isles

Here are a few more photos from this part of our trip…

Lochinver from Inver Lodge

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Lonely Cottage

Gairloch Beach

Gairloch Beach – a bit windy!

Badachro

Badachro Harbour

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

North Coast 500 Adventure – Part 1

Posted on April 16, 2018 by nigelyoungblog

Loch Lomond (in the rain)

Our first road trip for quite a while, and top of my bucket list, the North Coast 500 (NC500) is marketed as Scotland’s answer to US Route 66. Roughly 500 miles long, it starts and finishes in Inverness, and pretty much follows the coast road around Northern Scotland. Planned as a holiday rather than a photo trip, there was obviously going to be lots of photo opportunities, but not much time for considered and contemplative photography – right from the outset I figured it was going to be pretty much snapshots only. So, no filter systems, just my Olympus E-M1ii camera and 12-100mm ‘superzoom’ lens, and a Pen-F and 17mm as ‘backup’.

Glenfinnan

Starting from home in Shropshire added another 250 miles each way to the start point, so it was more like a NC1000 for us! It all started in rather damp fashion, with a grim drive in the rain through the M6 roadworks in Cheshire. Fortunately the rain eased off after that and we got to our first overnight stop on Loch Lomond without incident, although the rain made another appearance. Staying in the excellent Lodge on Loch Lomond overnight, with the added bonus of a sauna in our (upgraded) room set us up for what turned out to be an eventful second day.

Ferry Crossing

It started well enough, with a steady drive up through beautiful Glencoe, followed by a brief stop in Fort William to take in an exhibition of Scottish Landscape Photography. All good stuff. Then the plan unravelled – the swing bridge at Spean Bridge on the A82 had jammed in the open position, totally blocking the route northbound. Rather than waiting until it was hopefully fixed, or taking a 90 mile diversion, we opted to cut across to Mallaig via Glennfinnan, and take the ferry to Skye, before crossing back to the mainland and working along the coast. We had an anxious hour’s wait as the ferry was fully booked and we had to go standby! Fortunately they squeezed us on, and we had a bracing 35 min journey across The Sound of Sleat to Ammandale, incidentally pretty much the only way to Skye before the Skye Bridge was opened in 1995. Not so lucky were the dozen or so cars in the queue behind us – they had wait for the next ferry 2 hours later… So it was then a straight drive to Broadford, and across the Skye bridge to pick up our original planned route – we were on Skye for just 25 minutes!

The Torridon Hotel

After a further couple of hours driving on fairly twisty and narrow (sometimes single track) roads, it was a relief to get to our hotel in Torridon – straight into the bar for a well deserved gin and tonic! A decent enough gin selection, but nothing compared to the almost 400 whiskies on offer! A beautiful hotel, albeit at the top of our budget, but so full of Scottish style and charm.

Up bright and early next morning (more sunshine too!) for our first ‘serious’ part of the NC500 – the Applecross Peninsular, and the infamous Bealach Na Ba pass through the mountains. Reaching just over 2000ft at its highest point, this is not a road for the faint-hearted, or for camper vans – one section is very narrow indeed, with a gradient of 1 in 4, a series of hairpin bends, and

Start of Bealach Na Ba

very steep drops just beyond the crash barriers! However, the views are simply amazing, looking out across the hills towards Loch Carron in the south, and Skye and its outlying islands to the west. After a brief stop at the summit viewpoint to take in the vista, it was all the way down again into the quaint little village of Applecross with its beautiful, if rather stony beach. A quick lunch at the excellent Applecross Inn and we were off again, along the coast road back towards Shieldaig. More amazing scenery as we tracked along the coast – mountains to our right, and sea to the left, with Skye and its islands of Rassay and Rona in the distance. With so much to see, and so many places to stop off and admire the views, it took us a good couple of hours to make the return journey to the hotel.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA An amazing day, and one that completely surpassed our expectations. Roll on tomorrow, and Part 2!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

	princessjogger on Who Needs A Real Camera…
	Lane Erickson on Hello Again…
	nigelyoungblog on Hello Again…
	buddy71 on Hello Again…
	nigelyoungblog on Looking Back…

Nigel Young

Ramblings on photography

Category Archives: personal

Dawn to dusk…

A walk in the woods…

A sunny day in Wales…

Here we go again…

Coast and City…

North Coast 500 Adventure – Part 5 (the end!)

North Coast 500 Adventure – Part 4

North Coast 500 Adventure – Part 3

North Coast 500 Adventure – Part 2

North Coast 500 Adventure – Part 1