Week 4

The beginning of this week had Mark back at the Dr's with his ear, as it still had not cleared up. The Dr rang back in the afternoon to say he had arranged for Mark to be seen by the ENT Specialist in Inverness as soon as he could get over there. A discussion was held with work and it was decided we would drive over for an appointment on Friday.
Driving over involves a ferry trip from Lochmaddy to Uig on Skye, and then driving on to Inverness from there, after crossing the bridge onto the mainland at Kyle of Lochalsh.

Sunrise at Lochmaddy from Ferry

We left early so were able to photograph sunrise at Lochmaddy. The ferry crossing took 1 3/4 hrs and was very calm.
We took a leisurely drive to Inverness through Scottish Highland countryside on the A890 Loch Carron side (West ) side of the Highlands stopping off at a rather interesting Hotel at Loch Gowan for lunch.

Bridge to Skye from Kyle of Lochalsh

 Inverness ( Inver meaning mouth of and Ness the river Ness which flows out of Loch Ness) is actually on the East Coast of Scotland. It looks out onto the Moray Firth.

 We stayed in an apartment just along the river from Inverness Castle. The bridge near by was lit up at night.

Mark attended his appointment and the next day we decided to head back to the bottom of Loch Ness to Fort Augustus, where we were staying the night, via Aviemore and the Cairngorm ski field etc.

Above is a selection of photo's of Aviemore, the Cairngorm ski field and one of me at the Loch Carron lookout. There wasn't a lot of snow at the ski field but enough to be cold and for people to do a bit of skiing and snow boarding at the top. We travelled up to the top by funicular.

After an overnight stay at Fort Augustus we took the ferry back to Lochmaddy from Uig.

Ferry sailing that day was nice and calm but the next day we were hit here in North Uist with gale force winds.