Red Point Beach and Slatterdale

After yesterdays long drive to Lower Diabaig, we decided to have another local day and go for a short walk to one of the beaches at Red Point. There is a car park at the end of the road so most people just park up and head straight to the most accessible of the two beaches but we decided to investigate the farther of the two at the head of Upper Loch Torridon and we were both glad that we did.

It was only a short walk, taking us through a farm and across some rough pastures but it was well worth the bit of effort we put in. The beach swept round in a large curve and gave some fabulous views across to Applecross and the hills of Torridon. Unfortunately I wasn't able to catch that view on camera because, even though we had sunshine and blue skies, that area seemed to be getting some pretty abysmal weather.

That is what makes the photography in the Highlands so special though. About five years ago I spent four nights in this area followed by three nights on Skye and I had blue skies the whole time. Whilst it was great waking up to that everyday and touring about, once I was home and I'd started to process my photos, I soon began to realise how boring they looked and soon lost interest editing them. On the other hand me and Sal came up here last year and had what can best be described as a mixed bag of weather and I took some of the best photos I think I've ever taken and the same was happening this year.

Sal walked up to the ruins of the old salmon fishing station for a nosy whilst I had a look at the sand dunes and also investigated a headland named Sgeir a Bhuic which translated from Gaelic means 'rocky island of the buck' which makes sense because when the tide is in it does become an island. We spent a good while on the beach before wandering back to the car and heading in to Gairloch to have a coffee in the harbour cafe. We also managed to get to the butty shop just before it closed and got a couple of sandwiched to take back to the cottage for a late lunch.

Later in the afternoon I got in the car and drove down to Loch Maree with my camera and called in at The Victoria Falls, named after Queen Victoria who used to be a regular visitor to The Loch Maree Hotel. There was a short circular path up to the falls where I took a couple of nice shots and then I continued on the path and took some more looking back towards Loch Maree.

The cloud then started to pour in which ruined my attempts to get some good photos of Slioch (3218 feet) which towers above the Loch. I did manage to get one of a rainbow starting to form but it soon fizzled out.

Knowing when to admit defeat, I returned to the cottage to put my feet up. We both agreed that the walk on Red Point beach was the most enjoyable thing we had done so far on the holiday.