Sunshine

 Apparently the rest of the country was to have heavy rain and wind today as storm Alex blew in. But not us. Our day was fabulously sunny. The sky was chocolate box blue and we all needed our sunglasses. Once again we were to separate. Vicky was working, Alex was going for a run up a mountain, and the rest of us were going for a drive. We headed east toward Bridge of Awe, and dropped Alex at the bottom of Ben Cruachan. We later learned that it is almost straight up, and he needed to climb bits and traverse a super narrow ridge. But he made it!

View from a mountain in the sunshine

Meanwhile, we took the narrow road down the side of loch Awe where we stopped to give Misty a swim. Here we were approached by a gilly checking to see if we were fishing.

Loch Awe in the sunshine

At the end of Loch Awe, a very long loch, we came to Carnasserie Castle (closed due to Covid).

Carnasserie castle in the sunshine

After the castles day debacle we put Kathy in charge of lunch and she found us the best cafe at Kilmartin museum (closed due to Covid but cafe open), with great toilets as a bonus

Kilmartin museum cafe in the sunshine

It transpires that little old Kilmartin is the centre of Druidism in Scotland, so we set off in search of the nearby Baluachraigh standing stones and Temple wood stone circle

 

Temple Wood stone circle in the sunshine

Baluachraig standing stones in the sunshine

We carried on our circular route up the west coast through some fabulous scenery (SC!) before coming to Loch Feochan where we stopped to let Misty have a swim

Loch Feochan in the sunshine

Then we were back in Oban at the washing machine garage!!

Washing machines in the sunshine

We arrived home just as Vicky finished work, and just before Alex who had made a mad dash down a mountainside for the daily bus. For those of you who look at Ben Cruachan and feel that it is just above our house therefore he could have just ran down that side to get back (me!), that side is even steeper than the scary way he ran, so no he couldn’t. 

The sunshine meant for some amazing colours on the loch, and the bats were out in force again. A perfect end to a perfect day

Twighlight on Loch Etive

The bat cave