Warming Up

Today was beautifully sunny. And more than that, it was very warm. Not just a bit warm, the way it has been recently, when there has been a bit of a chilly breeze even when it has been sunny. Last weekend in Glen Shiel (the Easter hill-walking weekend with the club) the weather was brilliant, but when it rained on Easter Monday it fell as snow high up on the mountains which shows that it was still cold up there. This warmth today feels as if the season has finally moved on to proper Springtime. 

Speaking of last weekend, we had a really good time on the hill-walking club expedition to Glen Shiel. Ally and Cat were there, staying in the Ratagan Hostel, and joined us for dinner each evening in the Cluanie Inn where the rest of us were staying. The Cluanie Inn has had a mixed reputation over the years, however it has recently been taken over by new owners and was very clean and comfortable. The other attendees were Willie, Cornel, Justin, Tom and Jean, and we had a very pleasant time comparing adventures each evening. Many mountains were climbed but not by me. I headed to Arnisdale where I dropped James off to climb some Corbetts, and then enjoyed a beach walk before heading to Glenelg. I took the ferry across the Kylerhea Narrows to Skye and back, just as a foot passenger, and it was a lovely experience on such a beautiful day. There was a gorgeous collie called Spot, belonging to one of the ferrymen, who took his job as a ferry dog very seriously, even helping the ferrymen pull on the rope to tie up the ferry when it docked.

On the Sunday I decided to drive the forty minutes to the village of Plockton, where I went for a stroll and had a cup of coffee sitting outside the Plockton Hotel. It’s a very pretty seaside village. As I walked along the street, who did I meet but Maud and David, who I haven’t seen since they moved from Cambuslang to Kinlochewe. What a coincidence! We had a nice chat over a coffee. The sunny weather broke down on the Monday (in fact it had started raining during the night) and we said our farewells to the others and headed back to Ullapool. But what a lovely weekend in great company, in beautiful Glen Shiel with its herds of red deer, its wild goats, and its stunning mountains and rivers.