Going Wild

We've had two whole weeks 'wild camping' in the highlands of Scotland and are back in a campsite for an overnight touch with modern conveniences again!

We have parked in a different place for every overnight stop, every meal time and every cup of tea and woken up to a different view every morning, each one more stunning than the one before. Sunrise and sunset are particularly spectacular, as is rainy weather, sunny weather... infact do you know what? Pretty much everything is spectacular up here!

Challenges have included emptying our toilet - we have not yet had to dig holes thanks to public toilets (we don't use chemicals in our loo so it is just waste being flushed down the toilet), filling up our drinking water - most public loos have drinking quality water in their basins so we can fill up our containers using a beaker, although once or twice water has been a yellow or brown tinted colour so we have boiled it before use as a precautionary measure. Cleaning ourselves has proved a slight challenge - we've made do with flannel washes in the van, some handy public showers in Ullapool and I've washed my hair in various public loos around the area. My favourite wash was a dunk in a loch though!

We have been far too busy walking, playing on beaches, exploring and spotting wildlife to do any hunting or fishing and thus far our foraging has been limited to some handfuls of blackberries picked and eaten along the way whilst walking but we've managed to bake bread, cookies and pastry in the van and had pizza, pie, curry and various pasta meals.

There is a wealth of free things to do, with so many educational signs and information boards, visitor centres and museums to visit that we are ending every day feeling educated, entertained and amused. We've seen golden eagles, red deer, seals and leaping salmon.

our campsite tonight, in Shielbridge

on a walk earlier today, blue skies, sunshine and T shirts - in October!

Dragon and I making the suspension bridge wobble at Corrieshalloch Gorge. It was very exciting! Ady didn't like it.

another day, another gorgeous view

the road from Applecross peninsula - up in the clouds

blatantly ignoring the danger signs!

off for another walk

red deer stag right outside our van as dusk fell one night

sunset near Gairloch

another night, another overnight stopover

Loch Maree

visit to a Smokehouse, we watched the whole process of smoking salmon, from dealing with whole fresh salmon to trimming, slicing and packaging the smoked one. Then had some for lunch!

more stopping in beautiful places

stopped for the night again

Slattadale Forest at Loch Maree

We played pooh sticks on the bridge at Flowerdale Falls

Knockan Crag, a long walk up but well worth it for the view

sunset at Knockan Crags

dancing

van-baking (like home baking but in a smaller space!) pastry for a steak pie and cookies for pudding

another mountain climbed

at Knockan Crags, learning about geology

viewpoint over Lochinver

looking out over StachPolleigh

red deer stag with several hinds

more lochs and mountains

red deer being majestic

roadside view

at the Falls of Shin, we saw salmon leaping

golden eagle - wish we had a better camera!

some people don't take our group pictures seriously enough...

sunrise over Loch Maree as seen through Willow's window

at Beinn Eighe - the first national nature reserve

Loch Maree

just driving along...

Beinn Eighe

morning paddle at loch maree