Wednesday June 5th 2013 - Loch Shiel and the Prince's Cairn

I woke extremely early that morning, in fact had it been dark I would have classed it as still being the middle of the night, but this being much further north than home there was actually less than three hours of proper darkness - the dawn chorus started at 2.45am and an hour later it was well on its way to being daylight. Peering out of the tent window I could see the mottled red, pink, gold and orange of a very early sunrise over the hills behind the site - a photograph not to be missed, and although I've always maintained that no-one would ever see me walking round a site in dressing gown and slippers that's exactly what I did. Grabbing the camera I walked a few yards along the track and fired off a couple of shots before disappearing back in the tent; I was glad that so early on there was no-one around to see me as a pink fluffy dressing gown and furry slippers looking like yeti's feet aren't exactly good for the street cred!

I made a brew and took it back to bed, then after reading a few chapters of my book I dozed off again and woke properly at a much more sensible time; a dog walk along the track to the road and back was followed by an al fresco breakfast while I decided where to go that day. My original plan was to drive into Fort William and have a look round there, stopping at the Neptune's Staircase locks on the canal on my way, however when it came to putting the plan into action things didn't turn out quite as they should.

About ten miles away from Arisaig the blue started to disappear from the sky and by the time I reached Glenfinnan banks of angry dark grey rain clouds had collected over the hills and were stretching in the direction of Fort William. There was no point going any further if I was going to run into rain so as the sun was still shining over nearby Loch Shiel I decided to park up, grab a few photos then return to Arisaig. A sign by the roadside said 'Loch Shiel Cruises' and had an arrow pointing down a narrow lane so I turned off there and quarter of a mile along came to a large gravel car park and a hotel not far from the lochside; a fifteen minute wander got me several decent photos then I set off back to Arisaig.

As I drove along I was struck again, like the previous day, by the difference in the weather over just a few miles; heading away from Glenfinnan the clouds lessened quickly and by the time I was only about three miles from Arisaig there were hardly any left. So I wouldn't have had a completely wasted journey I decided to check out the Prince's Cairn, which I'd seen a sign for along the road; there was a convenient lay-by close to it and the cairn itself was just a short walk down a path from the roadside.



Those were to be my last photos for that day; although I'd only been out just over a couple of hours I really didn't feel like going anywhere else once I'd got back to the site so the rest of the day was spent reading, relaxing and just gazing at the lovely view from the front of the tent. A late evening walk along the beach kept the dogs happy and as the sun went down behind the islands I had my fingers metaphorically crossed that the rain clouds I saw earlier would stay away for the rest of my holiday.