Out west

Took a while to get up this morning. I’d slept well but hadn’t got to sleep til after 1am.
The weather forecast told us that it would be brighter and clearer in the west so, after a little drive through Cromarty to get our bearings and pick up some coffee at Slaughterhouse Coffee by the tiny ferry landing point, we decided to drive over to Ullapool.
As we drove west the cloud did indeed clear and soon we were bathed in lovely sunshine ….gorgeous! Lovely to drive through the hills and open country with clear views in every direction. We’d planned to stop at one waterfall walk on the way there and another on the way home but missed a turning and decided to just do both on the way home. When we arrived in Ullapool it was looking picture perfect with the little white houses along the water’s edge, the tree lined streets behind and the fishing boats in the harbour with the water sparkling beyond. There was a carnival atmosphere, with several groups supporting rowing teams from all across Scotland having a day of races off the beach. The course was one kilometre out, a turn and back, and it looked really hard work! We got a drink and sat between the supporters from Orkney and North Berwick as they roared for their teams. Lots of fun and a good atmosphere to be part of. North Berwick were doing particularly well in the races we saw but it was clearly set to run all day and they must have been delighted with the conditions.
We wandered round the town a bit and then went to the seafood shack for lunch, both having a seafood taster with oyster, smoked trout, langoustines, smoked mackerel pate, cured herring, salad and bread. Delicious!
We followed that up with a home made icecream (I had coconut, S had pear and blue cheese) then wandered round to see a Lottie Glob exhibition. Some of her ceramics are beautiful but we’ve not seen anything as lovely as the spheres we saw in a holiday house in Achiltibuie once.
Back to the car and we drove home, this time stopping at the waterfalls at both Corrieshalloch Gorge (last visited in pouring rain!) and then Rogie falls….both very dramatic and beautiful in their different ways. At Corrieshalloch we again had to steel ourselves to cross the very high bridge….bit terrifying but worth it for the view.
Drove home and settled down for a quiet evening. S played online bridge and I checked some minutes and even did a bit of family tree stuff, re-finding where my paternal grandmother lived and looking back through that line a bit which I’ve not explored before. We’d decided not to watch the football…poor England fans!