Rain, rain and more rain....................

We couldn't leave without one more look at the dolphins - but they must have had so much salmon on the day we saw them that there wasn't a dolphin in site.  Here's a video we took when they were about..............the last part of this clip briefly shows a dolphin with a salmon in his mouth...

As we had moved on to the Speyside area of Scotland, which is renowned for whisky distilleries, we thought we would visit some.  The weather had other ideas though and we didn't get out as much as we planned.  We did go to the Aberlour games on one day though  - which were very entertaining AND it didn't rain...

Dance competition:

Hammer throwing:

They cheat by wearing tights under their kilts....

The Bands:

 Aberlour and the river Spey:

Aberlour Church

We moved onto Tarland and.............more rain!  We managed a bike ride and a walk up to a stone circle and spent quite a bit of time in the local pub which was very good!




Ballater church

 

Then we moved to Scone (pronounced Scoon).  The campsite was in the grounds of Scone palace but, again, the weather was awful. - even for Scotland.... They had more rain in the first few days of August than they usually get in the whole month.  So, we decided to leave early and head back home - 430 miles in one day and giving up on our next three campsites and head to the south coast...........this picture of Bessie in the rain explains it all!

Highlands and Islands.................

Our journey from Oban to Skye was in fantastic weather and we arrived on the Isle of Skye on a beautifully rare sunny day....

The campsite was next to the Loch in a working croft so we had sheep and highland cattle in the next field. Fresh duck eggs for breakfast from the farm shop - fantastic!

Bessie is in the middle of the photo

It's a hard life!

We had a great day cycling to Skye's oldest pub (the Stein Inn)  - crab sandwiches for lunch. It was only a 20 mile round trip but included a very long uphill on the way there and a puncture on the way back!

Stein village

The Stein Inn - ready to cycle back!

On Sunday 31st July the wind blew and it rained...horizontally!!  So we had a "work day" and caught up with paperwork BUT the next day the sun shone again as we headed east to the Black Isle....We went the slightly longer way across - via Wester Ross and Loch Carron but it was worth it for the lovely views:

Our campsite was at Rosemarkie on the Black Isle (about 11 miles from Inverness).  Situated on Half Moon Bay on the Moray Firth and famous for a pod of 360+ bottle-nosed dolphins at Chanonry Point - just about the closet one can get whilst still on land.   We were lucky to arrive on one of the best days for a while to see these magnificent creatures. Malc took these photos just before high-tide when the salmon are forced into the bay and the dolphins come into feed.  They rise from the depths and grab the salmon.  Often the fish are much too big for them and they have to bite chunks off to finish them off (see bottom picture below).

This one is eating a huge salmon!

Next stop, Speyside by Craigellachie - home to about 50 whisky distilleries!!.................it could be some time before we update the blog!! Cheers!