On the approach to a milestone birthday I had a surprise treat of a couple of days in a campervan with my two sons. It was going to be a fun time, along with a break in the weather bringing the chance of clear skies and plenty of sun on the first day, even though the temperatures promised some cold nights!
We headed off to Glen Coe Saturday afternoon with the intention of an overnight stop on the A82 by Rannoch Moor, to get some clear views north across the lochs in the event of an aurora, which the phone apps seemed to be predicting.
Passing through Glen Coe we pulled in to stand in awe of the incredibly starry night, along with the dark silhouettes of the Three Sisters on one side of the road and Aonach Eagach and Am Bodach on the other! The tail of the Milky Way was easily visible as well.
We journeyed on and found a suitable parking spot and with it being such a clear, calm night headed off into the moorland nearby with some superb night skies and reflections in the lochs.
It was an interesting first night in the van, with what seemed an endless toggle between wake and sleep affected by the passing traffic and a complimentary lorry driver who must have thought it funny to sound the air horn while passing our darkened van in the middle of the night! Waking up the next morning to the freezing temperatures, there was a heavy frost and so we headed off before sunrise on foot to get some early morning photos of the stunning scenery. Here’s a collection of some of the photos which hopefully give a taste of the super views and golden hour light as the sun started to touch the tops of the mountains…
As the sun rose higher in the sky it was time to head off to Loch Etive, our next stop. The glen on the route down and return was stunning. Here’s a selection of photos at various points on the journey.
The next part of the plan was to head towards Fort William for lunch. On the way back through Glen Coe, I grabbed some photos from the passenger seat - a real sense of foreboding with the scale of the mountains as we headed north.
With the clocks going back the other weekend, the daylight hours are much shorter now and after lunch, passing by the north face of Ben Nevis, the sun already seemed to be low in the sky giving some great colours looking up at Carn Mor Dearg with Ben Nevis on the right side of the image below:
We were heading this time to a viewpoint on the road opposite the Torridon range of mountains in order to have good visibility of the night sky again. However not that long after arriving in the dark it started raining, and reduced hopes of any aurora viewing that night, if an aurora alert occurred. I did manage to grab a photo of the Milky Way in the starry sky before the cloud and rain arrived!
Heading off to the sleeping bag for the night, I was awoken from a deep sleep by my phone around 2.00am. Peering through bleary eyes, I saw on the phone that there was an aurora alert. With the rain earlier and a state of half-sleep I wasn’t expecting much, until I looked through the van skylight to see stars!!! Pulling up the blinds I could just make out a glow on the horizon, so hastily got dressed and staggered out of the van with the camera and tripod. It was worth the effort, since although it was the tail of the aurora oval (the main body of the aurora was over the US/Canada at that time) there was still significant colour, and the Milky Way complemented the view.
The clears skies must have been a small window during the night, since after returning to sleep and waking up later that morning the weather had turned - and the grey clouds were hanging around the tops near Beinn Alligin.
By this point we had run out of water in the van and so headed off to Kinlochewe where we could restock the water and deal with a few other needful tasks! We then decided to take the route home via Gairloch for another brunch and then back via the Ullapool road. Here’s some further photos along route - particularly stopping off at some small waterfalls in the rain!
It had been a fantastic couple of days - making memories and enjoying the amazing scenery of the Highlands again. We had been truly blessed with the weather - realising how different the experience would have been if the rain had been with us all weekend!