Thursday, August 24, 2006
Retrospective - June 2006
We arrived at Skiba Lodge on Saturday evening. It stands on the shore of Loch Broom, a few minutes walk away from Ullapool. A family of common sandpipers on the stony beach just beyond the fence gave me a nice garden tick.
On Monday, we drove north to Achnahaird Bay on the road to Achiltibuie. It was a warm sunny day and we set off to walk round the headland. We took the high road across open moorland, flushing the odd snipe from the verges.
The scenery was fabulous. Rocky islands, rugged cliffs, blue sparkling sea...As we walked into Reiff we spotted a red-throated diver bobbing on the waves. A pair of twite flew over the road, ringed plover ran across the sheep-grazed turf, and a dunlin trilled from a boulder.
At the end of the road we climbed a gate to get onto the cliffs, seeing common sandpiper and a family of shelduck on the Loch of Reiff. We lunched overlooking a rocky cove serenaded by hysterical oystercatchers.
The walking after this was wild and wonderful, though often boggy. There was a commotion on the seaward side and a great skua came flying towards us with a smaller, dark bird in close pursuit. Our first Arctic skua! A bit further on were two more skuas; pale birds this time and very conspicuous on their grassy knoll. In the distance is Beinn an Eoin.
Turning south again at Rubha Coigeach, we found ourselves in the company of fulmars and great black-backed gulls.
Our walk today was about 15 kilometres, or just over 9 miles; and towards the end we were beginning to feel it. Below, strings of auks were leaving the bay for the open sea. Back at the car park I finally got a family of rock pipits and a man strolled over and cheerfully informed us that we'd just missed some dolphins.
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From the road end at Badrallach, a path leads along the steep hillside high above Little Loch Broom. Many walkers follow this to Scoraig and the headland beyond, which must be a breathtaking walk in itself - but our destination was the summit of Beinn Ghobhlach, so after about a kilometre we "took to the heather" (Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped).
A red-throated diver flew below us with a goose-like call and joined a second bird on the lochan below this one.
Above the lochans the going got steeper though not drier. Greger was heard complaining that Scotland must be the only place on earth where water runs uphill. But reaching the top re-paid all our efforts.
The views inland and down to Ullapool were tremendous, yet all the time the gaze is drawn irresistibly westwards, to distant islands and the misty sea. Views indeed to "hurt the heart" (Roy Hinks in "The Home Track").
A small herd of white goats paused in their traverse of the hillside to look curiously up at us - don't know whether they're feral or wild. Across the loch is the lighthouse at Rhue.
We had a leisurely lunch and then continued round the rim before dropping into the corrie. The descent was very steep, the terrain rough and often boggy. We could see the path below us and kept saying what a relief it would be to reach it; and then when we were actually on it, we started moaning again because here and there, it went slightly uphill.
Back at the car I scanned the loch with my binoculars and just made out a merganser with young. It would have been nice to linger, but Greger said he was getting visions of cold beer in his head - and when he gets those, I know it's time to go.
// posted by Christine @ 7:01 AM 
