6th June Beautiful Scotland

We’ve been a tad busy since our last post so apologies we’ve not updated for ages!

The windscreen has been replaced……again but they have to come back because during the installation they damaged the internal blinds!

The season has finally taken off and we’ve been full most days or nearly full.  It’s good fun as you meet so many different people with different stories to tell, and for the most part everyone is enjoying their holiday so they’re happy!

Up here in Inverewe you get a real mixture of visitors – people touring around Scotland, those who come for a week to enjoy the area, backpackers (most of whom have walked from Dundonnell and are in desperate need of a rest), lots of bikers, foreign tourists (Dutch, German, French, Swiss) and wild campers who want to recharge their batteries (both mental and physical).

On our day off last Monday we went in search of the Sea Eagle out towards Gruinard as they are nesting on Gruinard Island.  We reached Dundonnell before realising we had gone too far but the scenery was absolutely spectacular.  A bench caught our eye so we sat and looked out over Little Loch Broom, watching the CaleMac ferry go past from Ullapool.

Lovely viewpoint!

We finally made our way back to where the Eagle is nesting and sat for nearly an hour with our binoculars at the ready…only to be disappointed.  As we were leaving a small tour bus turned up and a load of twitchers poured out so they pointed out where the nest actually was, so when we come back again at least we’ll know where to look!

We stopped off next to a nice stone bridge for a while so we could watch and listen to the the fast flowing water, there is something mesmerising about the sound!

As we were there we noticed two Blue Tits back and forth to the bridge where they had made a nest, they were busy catching food for their young and took it in turns entering the nest to feed them.

Blue Tit

The ride back was just as awesome and we’ve got some amazing pictures.  Being on a bike as well makes it so much better as you can stop almost anywhere and you can look around more (at least I can as Dean has to watch where he’s going!).

What a view!

We are actively looking to upgrade our scooter as it is not right for us now.  It was good at the time to give me (Angela) the confidence to get back on a bike, but now we need one with a larger fuel tank, bigger wheels and much more suspension!  Then we can go off overnight and camp on the numerous beaches up here and also we can tour more, i.e. get to visit Ullapool, Inverness and other places in one day. The two we are looking at are a BMW GS650 and a Yamaha XT660 Teneree……watch this space!

We’ve definitely got the biking bug now and it is such good fun….so long as some eejit doesn’t try and kill us like last time. I realised I’d got over my fear (or at least rationalised it) when I found I was more scared walking through a field of cows than I was on the back of the bike!

Also, there are so many bikers touring round Scotland who ride straight past us every day, we’ve definitely got ‘bike envy’!  None of the big’uns will wave to us…we’re poor relations!  A couple of Geman bikers stopped off the other day and they had fantastic Harley Davidson bikes, with the appropriate leather to match – gorgeous!

Anyway, we digress.  We’re off to Ullapool tomorrow to stock up again on bulk items that we can’t get locally so we’re busy storing everything away now as we’re on duty from 3pm this afternoon – what a life!