Wigtwizzle - Norman Smith's Travel Blog.: Highlands Holiday

We were still feeling a bit jaded after our long drive up and the weather forecast wasn't too good either so it was another staying local day. We decided to have a later start and just visit one of the area's finest beaches at Mellon Udrigle. On our last trip to this area, we'd been intrigued as to why the names of a couple of places contained 'Mellon'. The word Mellon derives from the word Meallan meaning 'little knoll' and Udrigle comes through Gaelic from a Norse word meaning 'cleft' or 'gully' hence Mellon Udrigle means 'little hill/knoll of the gully.

So it was a new coffee shop for Sal today but one I had been to a couple of times before. The Gale Centre in Gairloch is a modern coffee shop, exhibition hall and Tourist Information Centre all thrown in to one. The coffee was very nice and the carrot cake was excellent so what more could we have asked for? There was just one group of motorbikers in the cafe who I presume were doing The North Coast 500 Route. Theywere taking a break but I also suspect that they were drying off a bit from the squally showers that blew across for most of the morning.

It was quite pleasant when we arrived at the beach so we both grabbed our cameras to make the most of it. You get a great view across Gruiniard Bay to the mainland. On a clear day you can see as far as the hills of Assynt to the north of Ullapool plus you also get a grand view of An Teallach to the east. An Teallach kept appearing and disappearing but I'm afraid a view north wasn't to be. However I did get a few rainbow shots looking northwards so this just proved that every cloud has its silver lining.

Sal wandered off as she does and I just got a few rainbow and beach shots before the sun went behind clouds. We could see another squall heading out way so we beat a retreat back to the car and tucked in to some sarnies we had bought for lunch. The sun soon reappeared though so I had a second trip to the sandy beach. I got right to the far end of the bay and had taken some great shots before looking around and seeing the mother of all rain clouds creeping up on me.

Beating a hasty retreat, I just about made it back before the heavens opened. 'Just about' means roughly 100 yards so I did get a bit of a soaking but, 'd had the foresight to take a Morrison's carrier bag with me to keep my camera dry; something I had to do a fair bit on this holiday. There had been a couple on the beach walking their dog and they had got a lot further around the bay than me so they must have recieved a proper drenching.

Just after we had started our drive back to Badachro the heavens opened again and we were blessed with a full double rainbow which we giddily stopped for and photographed. The remainder of the drive home stayed dry and quite pleasant with a fair amount of late afternoon sun. No pub stops today either.

Despite a couple of heavy squalls, the weather had mostly played ball and those few showers did in fact make the photography more interesting. There's nothing more boring than blue skies photography!