Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Pine Marten and babies seen in Adrnamurchan

Picture of Rannoch Moor in early April by Jim Spratt, whose travellers tale follows. Posted by Picasa
John

another good break, the bad weather actually worked in our favour. There was a lot of snow in the mountain on the way through Glen Coe and on the Sat PM we went to Fort William and into Nevis Sport where it said there was 2ft of snow. Angie is the only one who has skied before so we planned on the Sun to try some snowboarding. Turned up at the kiosk on Sunday, we were the only ones booking snowboard lessons!! so the 4 of us had the instructor to ourselves all day. There were quite a few skiing lessons going on with a dozen to a group. We couldn't believe our luck. Had a great day and were all very tired and decided to go back again on the Monday but this time just to hire the boards and boots and try our our newly learnt skills.

Tues did a couple of local walks Incree Falls and Signal Rock.

Weds was the worst day weather wise so decided to visit Oban sea life centre and then back to take the Corran Ferry and went as far as the Ardnamurchan Natural history centre where we saw our 1st pine marten plus 2 babies (they had set up a hide which a wild marten had decided to use to rear its young. Amazing we were only a foot or so away through a glass panel. Still failed to see any golden eagles but it didn't help that we forgot the binoculars - maybe next time.

Thurs, a friend of Lizzy's was walking the West Highland Way with her dad and we joined them for the day from Bridge of Orchy to Kingshouse Hotel. Very bleak accross Rannoch Moor. The investment in some decent waterproof trousers paid dividends with only our feet being completely soaked. But a meal at the hotel sorted us out, what a pleasant change to be in a pub all night without any smoke. Roll on Jul 2007.

Fri, went to Kinlochleven for more walking the waterfall was all the more powerful for the milder weather bringing a thaw in the mountains.

All very sad to leave on Saturday

Did notice a small leak on the toilet waste pipe that you will want to fix before it causes any damage.

Many Thanks

Jim & Angie

PS. will be in touch soon about booking some time next year once we have checked our dates.

PS.2 I have attached a couple of photos
 
Lochside cottage near Glencoe in the Highlands of Scotland
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