Back in the swing ... tomorrow

A bit of a gap in the posting there. During the gap I went to the Glasgow show on the 27th. This seemed to involve lots of people doing motorcycle tricks, some impressive horse riding, some people showing cows, others showing their wares in marquees and a section for kids to bounce around on various inflatable castles and animals. I didn't take my proper camera and the pics from my phone camera are of laughable quality.

Then, last weekend lasted from Friday until Monday because Barry and Alasdair from the group took a long weekend off with me and headed up North. I rented a car and drove, with Alasdair as passenger. Barry borrowed a car and brought his friend Ewan. Three other potential long-weekenders pulled out so we ended up having lots of space, and it ended up costing more than would have been ideal, but I think it was worth it.

We headed northwest to Fort William so Barry could meet up with his female German friends who were backpacking around. Here's a weird stone dome near Glencoe - we couldn't agree on what this was for - there's no entrance - I think it's for making charcoal in. Any ideas?

We started walking up Ben Nevis at 5pm and ran out of time to reach the summit. We did reach the cloud level though and there was reportedly no visibility from the peak anyway. We got as far as this waterfall.

Then we camped in the "Braveheart carpark" near Ben Nevis. We returned to Glencoe with the girls, Ute and Marieke, to do the walk to the "hidden/lost valley" also to act as meals for the many starving midges there. There was water cascading down the mountains everywhere. Just left of here is the walk through to the valley.
Which contained yet more water and midges

but also contained nicer wildlife

After this morning activity we drove up to Ullapool via Loch Ness and Inverness without stopping at any touristy Nessie sites.
This was quite a bit of driving. We camped at Ullapool, had a late BBQ and midge feeding session before the next day. This was mainly a walk up Stac Polly, which has great views. Here are a few - the real views are better.

After this, plans went a bit astray. Barry, Ewan and Ute had gone back to Ullapool to collect Marieke, who wasn't feeling up to Stac Polly to take her and Ute up north. Alasdair and I made our own way up, detouring to see some random sites such as this 4-6000 year old burial site,
which was home to several sheep
and missed the others whose plans changed, coinciding with mobile phone batteries going flat and some loss of communications. Anyway, they ended up in a different town so Alasdair and I camped in Talmine,
near Tongue on the northwest coast

Finally, on Monday we drove back down to Glasgow meeting up with Barry and Ewan (who had delivered the girls to Thurso to catch a ferry) at Dunrobin castle on the west coast


then via Pitlochrie and Perth, where we ate before finally arriving home.
Today I got no work done.