After leaving the Kyle of Lochalsh we drove east and headed towards Loch Ness. Having wild camped for three nights we’d decided to try to find a camp site where we could have electricity and also fill up with drinking water as we were getting really low. Personally I was in desperate need of a shower and although Lynne was kind enough not to complain I’m sure I must have been smelling pretty funky after three days of wild camping. I called a camping and caravan club site in a small village called Foyers and booked a pitch for one night. I thought the cost was pretty steep at £28.90 for the night. The lady on the phone sounded really pleasant and told me that they were very quiet at the moment. Not surprising really, given the cost. It’s hardly the height of the season is it? Anyway, after what had been three or four days of driving mixed in with some pretty strenuous hikes all either of us wanted was to get showered and spend an afternoon relaxing. The day had started off overcast with a steady drizzle and seemed to continue in that vain for the rest of our journey. We did have one stop along the way at a small village called Invermoriston. I’d seen photos of what’s commonly known as the Old Bridge at Invermoriston and thought it would be good to go there but our arrival there was pure coincidence. Anyhow, while Lynne waited in the van, I went off in search of the old bridge. I’d barely walked 200 yards when I came across a wooded area with the most amazing autumn colours and couldn’t resist photographing this tree and the wonderful autumn colours surrounding it. The second image is the Old Bridge at Invermoriston although it is partially obscured by what I can only assume is the New Bridge at Invermoriston!
Moving on with our journey towards Foyers and the campsite where I was looking forward to having a shower and de-stinking myself after three days of rationing water whilst wild camping. The road to Foyers took us through more amazing scenery with vast vistas and mountains along the way. I must say that this trip has been my most satisfyingly intense period of landscape photography and I’m thankful to Lynne for her patience regarding the countless number of times a simple journey from a to b was interrupted because I’ve seen something I can’t live without pointing a camera at! Arriving at the campsite at Foyers at 1.30 pm we checked in at the reception only to be told we couldn’t actually move on to the site until 2.00 pm. Some kind of weird Scottish regulation they have to adhere to. Personally I couldn’t see the point, I mean, who do they think is watching? To say the site is in the middle of nowhere would be a huge understatement! While we waited I used the time to fill up with drinking water. When we were finally admitted to the site I headed straight for the upper tier in the hope that the higher ground would give us a better wifi reception. Scotland has been slightly sketchy where Vodafone’s mobile broadband is concerned. There have been numerous places where we couldn’t get any internet. When you consider that last year we travelled all the way north in Norway and never once went without internet I find it surprising that in Scotland it’s not so good. I know it’s a sign of the times and Lynne always tells me I would die without the internet which is a bit of a stretch, but when you’re camping in the wilds of Scotland it’s great to be able to plan your next move using Google maps/earth. So, having settled in and done a few chores, like emptying the toilet, and getting the gas switched on we both went for our much anticipated showers in the commendably clean shower block. It was so nice to feel human again after a good hot shower and we spent the rest of the afternoon and evening relaxing as planned. The higher ground did indeed give us a good enough wifi signal and the tv worked too so we were spoilt for choice on the entertainment front. The campsite was nice although not terribly busy but part of the attraction had been that it was situated on the shores of Loch Ness. Unfortunately the shores of the Loch were all fenced off so the only access would have been to walk back beyond the entrance and out of the site. Lynne and I were both so knackered we couldn’t be bothered!
The following morning we stuck to our usual routine of being up at roughly 7.30 am and watching three episodes of Frasier, I can’t really explain why as I’ve seen them all a dozen times or more. Afterwards we set off in the direction of a small village called Cannich with the intention of carrying on to Glen Affric. Having passed through Cannich we quickly found ourselves on a single track road with passing places. This went on for miles. Eventually we came to a turning with a dead end sign at it’s entry. Lynne said, “that can’t be it, it’s a dead end” so I drove straight past. Then I realised that the road I wanted for Glen Affric was a dead end albeit a long one! After doing a fifty point turn, even a smallish motorhome is not something you can throw around, we went back and found ourselves on an even narrower road passing through an ancient woodland with a combination of gnarly beardy old trees and Scots Pine. The road seemed to go on and on endlessly and we didn’t see more than a handful of other cars along the way. Amazingly we did see a tractor towing a gritter so it was obvious we could look forward to another cold night. Eventually reaching the end of the road we got to the car park at the far end. I had planned to camp there but unfortunately there was a sign indicating no overnight parking. I would have ignored this as I couldn’t imagine anyone being up there in the middle of nowhere to check on it but Lynne being a stickler for the rules, simply refused to consider staying there in case the bogeyman came knocking in the middle of the night! Consequently we headed back the other way and soon found a piece of flat land where there was one other camper van parked. The only problem was, there was no TV or wifi reception and while I love being out in the wild I do have my limits and a whole evening with no internet fix was more wild than even I could stand! Imagine the horror of Lynne and I having to spend an evening conversing with each other for the entire evening, unthinkable!! At that point we decided we needed try to find a phone signal so that Lynne could at least call Jean (sister in law) to let her know we reached our destination safely. The reason for this was that we were planning to meet them in Edinburgh and had been in touch every now and then to compare progress of our respective trips. So off we went back towards Cannich in the hope of finding a phone signal but not before I’d walked up the road to photograph a magnificent Scots Pine which I’d seen from the road earlier.
We eventually found a signal eight miles down the road and along the way I saw another place where we could camp. It was in a remote place just above a dam on the River Affric and the biggest bonus was that we had wifi again, oh bliss! Once again it was bloody cold overnight which meant everything was coated in a thick white frost in the morning along with a heavy mist as I ventured out with the camera. I quite liked this spit of land jutting into the water behind the dam and the thick mist meant you couldn’t see anything beyond it.
After what passes for breakfast we set off back to the car park at the top of the road and got there in good time. We had made an earlier start than usual because I had one photo in mind and given the fact that there was thick mist about, I wanted to get there before it disappeared. On reaching the car park, we duly slotted in the two pounds for the days parking only to find that, presumably because the machine was totally frozen, it made all the noise having accepted our coins and then decided not to give us a ticket. Once again the stickler for rules, yes madam, you know who you are, was not happy about leaving the van without a ticket displayed. That was when she who must be obeyed decided to stay there while I did the walk on my own. As it turned out the walk only took me about ten minutes to get to the viewpoint I wanted, and the view was everything I’d hoped for with the mist and all! This is the resulting image and for me it makes the whole trip worthwhile so as you might have gathered, I’m more than pleased with it. I suppose I could have wished for more drama in the sky but hey, you can’t have everything!
I was back at the car park in just over half an hour and ready to move on to other things. There were so many incredible scenes and trees to photograph I was starting to feel, and behave, like a kid in a sweet shop! I don’t know how interesting any of this is for anyone reading, but just to reiterate, this is primarily a record for our own personal benefit. The following image is another characterful Scots Pine which I couldn’t resist including here.
Once again, an amazing location with lots of incredible subjects for photography and one I fully intend to visit again in the near future. I spoke in a previous blog of having to travel a hundred miles to find suitable landscape locations to shoot and the fact that I needed to find places closer to home. Unfortunately a hundred miles just got extended to two hundred because after Scotland I can’t imagine where I’ll ever get the kind of buzz I’ve had whilst being in Scotland! I reluctantly drove away from Glen Affric with the intention of reaching the Pitlochry area and finding somewhere to camp the night. Once we were on the A9 heading south and it started getting dark we were lucky to find a place called Raily Cafe which had a large car park and after asking in the cafe if it was ok we stayed the night waking to another hard frost in the morning before setting off for Pitlochry.
Wandering Wildman 