Posting from the past

No signal last night so Saturday written in word doc

This morning we walked into Lochinver after breakfast for a look round. It’s a big ish town with a couple of shops, petrol station and various cafes. It is a large harbour / fishing port with loads of wildlife around the coastline.

We went first to the Assynt visitor centre which is the tourist office and also the base for the wildlife rangers. The downstairs has the usual selection of leaflets, maps and tartan tourist stuff for sale and a large display of local history information including maps, models and videos. Ady and Davies learnt all about crafting and the clearances while Scarlett and I watched a video of hen harrier chicks in the nest taken last year on Orkney. They usually have live footage of a local golden eagle nest, but the pair of eagles, who they have been watching for 15 years did not mate this year, which is apparently common after a harsh winter with little food around like last year was but a shame nonetheless. The hen harrier footage was very good if not quite as exciting as webcam stuff from a nest actually nearby.
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Upstairs was the childrens section with various puzzles, interactive bits, computer with local information, scope set up over the harbour and loads of information about local wildlife. They had a board up which excitingly reported very recent sightings of minke, pilot and killer whales, dolphins, sea eagles and other birds. They also had on display a leatherback turtle skull and some ribs from a fin whale all locally found. I spent some time writing down information about the 15 best places to spot wildlife locally and have plotted them in to our coming weeks plans, particularly as they mention wildcats and sea eagles which we’d love to see but know the likelihood is slim of, so anything to maximise chances is good. Ady and the kids spent time watching a heron fishing in the harbour through the scope. We walked along to check out the far shop and picked up some sausages for dinner and some fruit for lunch and checked the prices and opening times of the petrol station.

Back to Willow for lunch and then we nipped into the town to get some petrol as it’s closed tomorrow and then back to our parking space for a walk around the woods. The woods are excellent – a community run project with various walks, loads of information boards and features. We did a couple of the trails including the ‘All the time in the world’ one which included information about how old trees were, how we can date seeds from peat bogs to discover how long various species have been around, cross sections of tree trunks so you could see the rings, a peat bog, sculptures and woodland art including a massive birds nest complete with egg that we clambered inside, giant spiders, slugs and other creatures made of wood hidden in the trees. We came out at a play area where we paused for a while and then took the path to a view point, which was quite a climb but well rewarded with a view to the north one side and then higher up a view to the south, both beautiful.
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Back down again we took the path called ‘are you brave enough’ which was over rivers on log bridges, through close trees and over rougher terrain. We all decided it would be a good path to do as it was getting darker. On looking at the map we saw there was a second car park to the woodland so decided to return to Willow and drive to it to see if it had a better view than the carpark we were already in. It’s only a mile up the road and unfortunately has no signal on phones or internet but the view is indeed lovely so it’s worth it for one night. On the very short drive along the road I looked up at the mountains and saw two red deer silhouetted against the sky so we stopped and looked at that for a while, rather spellbound. I’d been saying to Ady I wanted some ‘majestic’ poses from the eagles and deer and this was very majestic indeed J.
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We decided to have cooked breakfast for dinner so a feast of sausage, bacon and eggs was cooked up and very much enjoyed and then as it was properly dark we grabbed our head torches and went off for a late night walk in the woods. Ady swiftly decided it was not a good idea but got shouted down by the rest of us and we did 100 paces into the woods then all turned our torches off. It was almost totally dark but the stars were amazing and our eyes quite quickly got accustomed to the light and we could see shapes and outlines. We all stood back to back and turned our torches back on again but didn’t see any wildlife. We walked back up the road a little way too as it overlooks a loch but although we heard some owls too-witting we didn’t see anything other than some bats swooping around. Still, always exciting to be out in the dark with torches J.
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Ady went back in the van first to get the beds sorted, always easier without anyone else in the van, and the kids and I stayed outside star gazing. We all snuggled up on the bed chatting for a while before they went up to bed. I’ve been doing some research online and with various leaflets I’ve collected and our map and have plotted out a rough idea of places to visit for the next week or so – all free, mostly walks or nature reserves and all with just short drives between them each day to conserve petrol. This coming 10 days will be tough as our budget is now very tight having already spent lots on petrol (about £150 this week I reckon) but we have done loads more of the miles we were due to do already so in theory that will balance out. We do have sufficient tinned and packet food to see us through so we’ll be fine but it will be more critical than usual that the tenants don’t mess us about with the rent this month.