Feeling Blessed: Scotland on Thursday

I had been so happy that I had been able to do some hiking the day before. I could have gone to the top if it had not been for the weather. My knee is holding up very well and that is a great feeling. But the weather doesn't look much better today. As we always say "it is what it is".

Tricia picked us up from our place and we had some lunch.

None of the tops of the mountains were visible which frustrated Robert because he wanted us to see them.

But then he said we should go out no matter what. And he was right. Still a lot to see and a lot of beauty. This day we went into the other direction.

We did a lot of driving. Most of these roads seem to be the size of one-way but of course are in both directions. There are a lot of places where one of the two meeting can move over in and all goes quite fast.

The info on my photos says "Torridon".

Some of the names (from left) Beinn Alligin, Beinn Deirg, Liathach

Then Robert pulled into a little parking place right after a bridge and we heard water rushing. It was interesting that the sign was written in two languages: English and Gaelic.

From the bridge we saw the waterfall.

Oh, we went into the forest next to it. The weather seemed to be holding. We went steadily uphill but it gave me no problem. After all, I have not done a "real" hike since my new knee operation and am a bit rusty.

Robert explained that a huge area had been fenced to keep the deer on the correct side of it. Millions of trees had been planted to bring nature back to it's native state. So, gates need to be closed.

This hike must give anybody a happy feeling. If you look closely there are even little orchids.

This is as far as we went though. It was getting late.

Some of the heather is blooming. Soon some of the sides of the mountains will be totally purple. Amazing.

Where to look? Up and around you ... no, better to the ground. Lots of stones and roots could make you easily fall.

Slowpoke Christa needed to take more photos though. These blue flowers were so iddy biddy.

Everywhere we had driven there were wild rhododendrons which Tricia said were a problem here. I didn't have a photo yet though so I went a few yards up the road from the parking lot. Can you imagine whole fields of them.

The photo says: Wester Alligin

VIDEO! (0:52) the wind is doing havoc on the mic ... don't turn it on.

OMG, what a lovely little fishing village. But as everywhere there are some empty abandoned houses. The young people (children) don't want to live in these place any longer.

Sorry the bumblebee is not in focus. It was so cute.

We decided a cup of tea would be lovely and there was this inviting place right there.

They were fully booked for dinner but some refreshments would be alright. What an interesting place it was. A young couple. We think that he was from Holland. We had a nice chat with him. He told us that fishermen were diving for scallops here and that was what they were serving. We said that it was cold here so they needed wet suits and he told us that you could not do it without a dry suit. We had quite a talk about environmental fishing etc.

A selfie (kind of) because of the menu in the back. So interesting. Too bad we are running out of days here.

We were very happy how the day at turned out and we saw a lot. We refreshed and made our way from their house around the corner to the Kinlochewe Hotel. Tricia had made a reservation for 7 pm. It was an excellent place and we enjoyed very nice food and evening.