It has been great to have my Dad come and stay with us following Christmas and into the new year. The new year’s eve weather was looking better than forecast with some sun and blue skies, hence I decided to take Dad on a car excursion north to get a taste of our ‘local’ scenery.
Following the rain that we had experienced over the recent days, helping clear the local roads and reducing a lot of the residual snow, I expected snow only at the higher altitudes and wasn’t quite expecting the greeting we received as we reached the Gairloch turn on the Ullapool road! Trees were white and the road had an uncomfortable coating of slush-turned-to-ice. The views were stunning - but it became a very cautious onward drive with the road conditions worsening to those in the photo below!
We were heading for the Loch Maree region which takes us past Loch a’ Chroisg that I have photographed many times over the years with stunning reflections. Not quite one of those days - but here’s a comparison between the outbound journey and return later on this trip when the breeze had dropped on the return:
Some additional surrounding views…
Coming over the ridge into Glen Docherty that looks down towards Loch Maree presented us with very moody atmospherics. We had come from clear skies and sun, with frost and snow laden trees and now were looking at very grey overcast conditions lying ahead of us.
The plan was to head to the north end of Loch Maree to track down a view from an oil painting my Dad had purchased from an artist nearly fifty years ago!
It started raining as we headed through Kinlochewe, heading then up to Gairloch before eastwards to the suspected spot of the painting - which we successfully located! It must have triggered some very distant memories as my Dad looked down at this view - following the occasion on the Isle of Arran where he with us as a young family met the artist all those years ago where the painting was purchased as a ‘car boot sale’!
It’s always a pleasure to have sunny weather and blue skies, but I really enjoy the drama that comes to images when the sun is hiding its face!
But wait long enough on some occasions and the sun can still make an appearance and bring a different dynamic to a photo:
A selection of some of the snow laden mountain tops …
As we journeyed back to Loch Maree, the weather cleared quite significantly over the loch. We had some superb views of Slioch (981m) majestically towering over the surrounding landscape poking its head above the low lying cloud.
Cloud swirling around the top and then clearing…
… further close up views of the flank of the mountain were possible as we travelled further down the loch.
Back up Glen Docherty and starting the descent down to Achnasheen we were taken back again by the transformation in the conditions around us as we seemed to pass through a veil into a winter wonderland of trees laden with snow and frost - an indication of how mountain ranges and glens can trap weather conditions.
We were in for one more treat as we headed home passing Loch a’ Chuilinn to find it lying as still as a millpond. Stunning, with a pink hue evident from the setting sun.
All in all a very worthwhile time out, despite navigating icy, snowy road conditions. Making memories and recalling some as a fitting end to 2022.