At last, our first break away from home in two years.
We stopped off at the viewpoint on the A81 below the Black Mount for a coffee while en route to a week away in remote Ardnamurchan.
The views back to Loch Tulla and the surrounding mountains of Beinn an Dothaid and Beinn Inverveigh are always breath taking.
I met up with Tim Parkin for some photography on Rannoch Moor, arriving at the lay-by after an hour and a half’s journey in the dark from Glasgow just seconds after Tim had parked his camper van. We started off in Tim’s camper van with a freshly brewed cup of coffee and a blether before heading out onto the windswept moor in the early morning light.
Unfortunately, the conditions were far from ideal, as there was a very strong wind blowing across the moor. Not only was the wind chill factor unwelcome, the wind was so strong that nothing, apart from the bigger rocks, was still enough to photograph. After a bit of wandering and shooting a couple of shots, we agreed that we were literally being blown off the moors and to seek a more sheltered location behind the mountains and in the forest at Glencoe Loch.
While out on the moor beside Lochan na Stainge, I only took two photographs, but managed to get one that I am actually very pleased with, especially given the conditions: a panorama of the view to the Black Mount across Lochan na Stainge.
Before heading to Glencoe Loch to seek shelter from the wind amongst the trees for some more photography, Tim showed me an area of devastation on Rannoch Moor. The forest had been cut down years ago, leaving a wonderful derelict area. The mixture of tree stumps, rotten wood, grasses, mosses and lichen is asking for a return in the near future for some intimate landscape photography.