Thursday June 6th 2013 - A ride to Rhu and Loch Morar

I woke to yet another beautifully sunny early morning which was far too good to waste by lingering in bed, so after giving the dogs their breakfast I grabbed the camera and took them down on the beach, this time walking along towards Portnadoran, the camp site 'next door'. As I rounded a rocky outcrop I saw two young women at the water's edge with no less than seven dogs and a small pup all enjoying a game of fetch-the-frisbee-out-of-the-water - Sophie and Sugar would have loved to join in but unfortunately for them I kept them on their leads to avoid any mayhem. Eventually the two women and the dogs disappeared through the gate into Portnadoran and I had the beach to myself so I let Sophie and Sugar off their leads and made my way back round to the tent via the riverside beach.

Not far from the spot where I climbed up from the beach onto the grass in front of the tent several fishing baskets of the type used to catch crabs and lobsters lay unused on the sand; most were open at one end but a couple of them were closed and it was in one of these that I noticed several little sparrows fluttering about and chirping like mad. Having got in there for whatever reason they now couldn't get back out and were obviously in distress, so leaving the dogs and the camera back in the tent I went to the rescue; there were seven altogether and as soon as I opened the end of the basket they were out and away, their chirps of distress replaced by cheeps of happiness - or was I imagining that bit? Well, imagination or not I was just glad I'd seen the poor little things and set them free, and to avoid the possibility of a repeat situation I left the end of the basket open.

With the dogs on their line outside the tent I lingered over breakfast and spent some time chatting to various other residents who passed by on their way to the water tap, then with no firm idea of where to go for the day I decided to go into the village, take a few photos round there, then think of somewhere else after that. Parking places in the village are at a premium and most were taken when I got there but I managed to find a spot on the verge across from the Spar shop; the village itself is so small that it doesn't take long to see everything so a quick ten minute wander got half a dozen shots then I returned to the van.

At the far end of the village was a signpost telling me that Rhu was just over three miles away, so not knowing where or what Rhu was I decided to take a look. The road was single-track with passing places and wound in and out following the contours of the bay, turning inland a bit at one point and passing a large area of grassland. As I drove along I noticed up ahead what appeared to be a small cow but when I got further along it turned out to be a female deer grazing peacefully in the grass. I stopped the van and it raised its head, looking at me across the grass for several minutes before it carried on grazing; it was just a bit too far away to get a really clear photo and to try to get closer would probably have spooked it anyway so I just sat in the van and watched it for a while.

Eventually I continued my journey, passing a handful of isolated cottages and a few sheep grazing by the roadside, and finally coming to a dead end by the gate of a private estate with a view across to the Small Isles; presumably this was Rhu. I had no choice but to go back the way I'd come but the views were good so it had been worth going, and on the way back I stopped briefly in some of the passing places to get a few photos.

Back at the village I followed the road up onto the main A830 and headed towards Mallaig, but resisting the temptation to take another walk along Morar's gorgeous white sands I turned inland and went to Loch Morar instead. Passing through Morar village the road was another single-track one with passing places and it followed the lochside for quite a distance before turning inland; not knowing where I would end up I didn't go too far before turning round and heading back to the lochside, and finding a nice little shingle beach with a convenient place to park nearby I released the dogs from the van and we went to have some waterside fun with a few sticks and stones. As the day was very warm and I was wearing beach sandals I decided at one point to have a paddle to cool my feet down - bad idea, the water was freezing! It didn't seem to bother Sugar though as she went in several times to retrieve the sticks I'd thrown, but I made sure I gave her a good towelling down afterwards.

Those were to be my last photos of the day; it was still fairly early in the afternoon and Mallaig was only a couple of miles along the road so I could have paid another visit there, but Invercaimbe and its lovely beach were calling me back so I returned to the tent, where the rest of the day was spent pottering about, wandering the beach and reading my book. I'd already planned where I was going the following day, weather permitting - it would be a long drive and I didn't want to stay up too late beforehand, so as the late evening sun went down beyond the islands I took Sophie and Sugar for their last walk of the day then retreated to my bed.