Gairloch Walks

Another day of dazzling sunshine.

It has been pointed out to me (by M) that there was considerable overlap in the respective stories from Mrs Cakes and I. I type this without reviewing Mrs Cakes's blip today which is already posted; done while the straighteners were warming up I was told. I have seen the intended photo how ever and I thought it was a cracker.

I shall therefore skim over the two lovely dog walks and the boat trip at least for the moment. The local hotel, the Millcroft, is a short walk from our lodgings and we have had a really good bar meal this evening. The lady who served us, part of the family who own and run it, was lovely and friendly and curiously thought M was a previous patron. I could confirm she was but as it turned out, from a time long before her family took over the hotel which was just in the summer last year.

So that's the main story. The one and only time M and I went camping was actually to Gairloch a long time ago; pre children, pre dogs, and it was at this time of year, and we dined that evening (for it was a one night adventure; the camping not the relationship) at the Millcroft Hotel Bar.
It was a camping adventure that did not pass without some noteworthy events. My faithful petrol stove exploded in flames while making the morning porridge. I recall approaching it with a dust bin lid trying to turn it off but a safety valve was spraying out petrol vapour which was igniting so it was impossible to put out. It was so cold that no one else was daft enough to camp so we had an ensuite shower block to ourselves. M insists that I had pitched the tent on top of a boulder that dictated a banana curved spinal shape by morning.

But for M much much worse than the cold, the lack of comfort, our lone camper status, it was the giggles.

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I must share something of our early evening dog walk to the Fairy Lochs in the hills south of Shieldag. An American WW2 bomber crashed here in 1945 on its way home after the conflict. Nine young men lost their lives here, some of then after many dangerous missions over mainland Europe. Wreckage remains clearly visible and the area is classed as a war grave and memorial.

This is a picture taken overlooking a wee hill loch on walk one.