Sunrise, fog and clear skies

After a very good nights’ sleep (from 21.00 until 07.15 believe it or not) I met Ron and Herman at the carpark at 07.45. They were already de-icing the car windows under a clear bright starry sky. We were a bit disappointed because we’d hoped for a few clouds in the sky.
We drove off into the pass of Glencoe and to our surprise we went from a clear sky into a thick fog in an instant. This wasn’t what we meant with a few clouds in the sky. There was not a single mountain visible, just fog. Hmmm….time to switch to plan B: Return to the inn for a full Scottish breakfast.
While driving back we passed the Three Sisters and they served us with a stunning view. A bright sky again with spectacular colors of pink, orange and magenta. We quickly parked the car and took our gear out and started to expose. After a while I realized it was freezing cold with a fierce wind blowing my socks off. Man, this is cold!! But the views were stunning with the mist rolling on, so we all kept on exposing franticly.
With the rising sun the light got soon too harsh to produce great photographs. It was time to head to the inn for that breakfast. We had about 30 minutes before breakfast time would be over. We made that deadline and enjoyed the full Scottish. Although it had a new component, compared to previous years. The sausages had been replaced by a slice of undefined meat and some haggis was added as well.
After the (almost) empty breakfast plates were gone we stayed and chatted a bit, while drinking a cup of coffee and tea.
Halfway the morning we left again and went to Bridge of Orchy, a place we had been before a few years before. A river with several waterfalls. The road of the final 9 kilometers was a bit slippery, but Herman drove us to the parking safely, as usual.


These kind  of locations are diffcult for me, I don’t see it. Too busy, there’s happening too much. I chose for an alternative and took my drone up in the sky. I flew a bit and then went 300 meters up the river, while capturing several shots. Because of the cold, the battery couldn’t last very long so after a short while I pushed the home-button. Would it come home to me, or would it plot a course to Delfzijl, my hometown. Exciting!! Fortunately after a short while I heard it buzzing above my head and my controller said “landing”. My mavic had a perfect precision landing on my orange landing pad. I’m always glad when it’s back safe on the ground.

Ron and Herman were still capturing their shots, so I flew a bit more.
A very kind man walked by and started talking to me. Where I come from, the conversation wouldn’t come any further than “Hello” - “Goodmorning”, but not in the UK. He asked me what we were doing and then started to give some interesting tips about locations nearby. He suggested we’d park our car half mile back, take a footpath from there (the fact the path was closed should be ignored he said) for about 200-300 yards and then we would be at a (unknown) very lovely little waterfall, called the White falls. The special thing about it was that the water is falling over white marble. “Glen Orchy White Marble” he told me and I could hear in his voice he was proud about that. “Only a few waterfalls in Great Britain contain marble”, he added. The we said goodbye and he went off. A nice man.
Of course we took his advice and went to this waterfall. Expectations were high. Herman and I drove the car half a mile and Ron came by foot. His i-watch told him he hadn't exercised enough.
We found the falls, and it was a lovely location indeed, but once again…not my location.
I let Ron and Herman do their thing and walked back to look for other interesting subjects. I found a tree and shot the waterfall with my 400mm from a greater distance.

Around 14.00 hours we had to leave for the sunset location. Plans were to go to Loch na-h'Achlaise, but while driving the slippery 9 kilometers back to the A82 we agreed to go in the other direction, and go to Kilchurn castle instead. The clear sky made us change our plan.
That decision turned out very well. We had great light and great views during the sunset. Jaw dropping colours and reflections.
In fact, it made Ron sing strange songs for a while. When the sun and enchanting light was gone, we headed back to the Clachaig Inn for our dinner. And that concluded our second day here in the Highlands.

Tomorrow we’ll be doing it all over agian, on other locations. What a great trip so far!! Goodnight.