What started out as a very very frustrating day ended up being a decent day after all. Set off just after 7:30am this morning to head down into Glencoe & Glen Etive, only to find ourselves barely able to average 40mph with the ice on the roads. The stretch from Fort William to Ballachulish being particularly treacherous with a car leaving the road, nose diving over the edge of the road and flipping onto its roof. Luckily the occupants appeared to be ok. Road conditions worsened of we entered Glencoe and our first planned stop of point at the car park below the Paps of Glencoe was a no go as there were no parking spaces left. We carried on up the road into some spectacular scenery with the intention of stopping of at the Glencoe Ski Centre and taking a walk out to the Black Rock Cottage but that was another no go as there were cars parked and abandoned all over the road bringing the road down to a very narrow single track (cannot believe folks can just leave there cars parked on a main road without a care for other road users in those conditions). Again we carried on, this time to what was suppose to be our third stop at The Kings House Hotel to feed and photography the red deer but yet again it was a no go with cars parked over the entrance/drive down to the Hotel. Further along we managed to pull in to take a few photos of the snow covered hills before turning and heading to our fourth location of Glen Etive. We realised very quickly that this was a stupid idea as the snow was to deep and my little car even with snow tyres was not going to make it down the road. At this point we decided to cut our losses and head back towards Fort William. On he way back we managed to find a parking space at the Paps and took a couple of shots before heading back to North Ballachulish where we stopped again to take a few snaps of the mountains over Loch Linnhe. We then carried on through Fort William and onto Spean Bridge, where we turned off onto the A86 to Newtonmore. Luckily we were taking our time along the road as we spotted a Tawny Owl sitting on a fence post at the side of the road. We managed to turn further on at head back were Lorraine got cracking shots before it flew off into a tree on the opposite side of the road. We stopped again just before Newtonmore when we came across a field of highland cows for a few snaps and then headed off up to Glenmore where we came across our favourite friendly little robins again and the herd of highland cows we photographed on out last trip into the Gorms. After what turned out to be a 8+hr day trip, and not long after we got back home I slept for nearly 2hrs lol :) P.S. please follow the link if you would like to see Lorraines photos of the Tawny Owl. :) https://facebook/lorrainemacleodphotography/photos/a.599550906844021.1073742385.214165645382551/599551140177331/?type=1&theater
Posted on: Sun, 18 Jan 2015 23:14:48 +0000
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