A very long dog walk

Merlin has been particularly annoying over the last few days so I decided he needed a good long walk to sort him out. I’m happy to announce that it worked and he’s been curled up on the couch asleep for most of the evening. There was a slight revival for dinner.

This is not going to be a proper post, . . I really just want to share some photos! It is delightfully wintry here at the moment with a fair bit of snow (for here) and lots of ice. I’m really enjoying it, and learning a lot too! For example, the clear stuff that looks like water is quite often really slick ice so you shouldn’t stand on it!

This walk was about 12km all up and took about 4 hours I think. I can’t tell for sure because my GPS logger has not been working properly. I just downloaded a software update and that seems to have fixed it but, sadly, only after I had deleted todays tracking information. The walk was from my house, north to Meall Meadhonach (354m), across to the peak just north of An Socach (362m) and across to Creag Riabhach (the small one: 316m), then along the ridge (344m) then home. This almost finishes my tour of “small hills between Kinlochbervie and Durness”.

Merlin is not particularly excited about snow, but not averse to it either. The only problem is that there is not much water for him to drink when everything is frozen, and he doesn’t seem to like the few streams that are running – too cold perhaps? He is disappointingly competent on ice. I was expecting at least a few hilarious sliding and tumbling episodes but he has resolutely stayed on his feet and even been mostly in control, at least when I’ve been watching.

So now on to the pictures:

Breaking inch thick ice on a large loch to try to get some water for the dog (Loch na Gainimh – the sandy loch)

What I thought was a frozen creature . . . sadly just a water channel through ice I think. Notice my super duper new proper walking Wellington boot, for scale.

The peak north of An Socach (the snout), and some lovely peat hags on the slope (from Meall Meadhonach – the middle hill)

Overlooking Sandwood Bay. This peak was gneiss.

A huge overhang/cave under a peat bridge.

Icicles!

A plant which I can only remember as Capillary Folia . . . a lovely spot of colour in the black and white. (Sphagnum capillifolium apparently!!)

And now with playful dog and soft focus (raindrops)

A fantastic natural cairn south of Creag Riabhach (the stripy rocks). This is just how the sandstone has ended up!

Some more lovely colours (and a little soft focus raindrops – this was the clearest of about 8 photos!)