Staying Local

The past five days had been pretty tiring so we decided to make our first day in Wester Ross a local and relaxing day. Having said that I bet we still drove about twenty five miles in total and that was just going to the nearest shops and back!

On our way in to Gairloch, we drove past the secluded cove of Sheildaig which was only a mile or so out of Badachro and saw our first colony seals out on the rocks, not a bad way to start the holiday. Come the end of the week, I'm sad to say that seeing seals had become a regular occurrence and we finished up being quite blase about them.

One of the highlights of last years holiday was our visits to The Mountain Coffee Company Cafe at Strath which is really just a continuation of Gairloch and we were relieved to see that it was open for business again after the lockdown. The coffee was just as good, as was its ambience. There is always a hippytype 1960's feeling of peace and love in the place because everything and everyone is so laid back.

After out caffeine hit, we had a short walk along Strath beach. Unfortunately the tide was almost in so very little sand was showing but Sal still managed to do a bit of beach combing and came away with some interestingly shaped and coloured small shells.

We stopped for a wander around Gairloch Harbour on our way back and had yet another seal encounter. This one was massive and was circling under the pier hoping for one of the locals to land a catch. Both the fisherman and the seal were out of luck but at least it enabled Sal to get a cracking photo of the seal with its head popping out of the water and she came away a very happy bunny.

By now it was late afternoon so we decided to just head back to the cottage and relax. When you are staying in a hotel you think you have to make the most of every hour of the day but staying in a holiday let takes that pressure off and that day we were quite content to just sit and relax and enjoy being together.