Ullapool

That second half of our Scottish Highlands week, while we were hiking Cul Mor and Stac Pollaidh, we stayed in the little port town of Ullapool. Lynda, back in Edinburgh had told us that Ullapool was the port that the first settlers of Nova Scotia had sailed from. It has  changed quite a bit since that time, though many buildings are quite old. Unlike many Highland villages which just kind of grew helter skelter and then roads were put in to connect, Ullapool was built on a grid, and is quite an orderly layout. Our B&B was in this street across from the harbor with this view of Loch Broom. As you can see, we

continued to have gray wet weather, some days wetter than others, some days grayer. This was to our delight, as we had escaped the summer heat of Central Washington, but, then, some of the wettest we could have done without.

From our window we could observe quite a bit of local activity, as the harbor was really a center of it all.






These boys were passing the time one morning splashing rocks.

And here, for the SkyWatchers is one of our brilliant Highland rainbows. The photographs do not do justice to the brilliance of the colors. One that we had had on our way back to Kinlochewe from a hike was so bright, we just pulled over and stared for several minutes. It was complete in the field beside us, and double, and I have never seen colors so extraordinary. (No pictures of that one--the cameras were in the back of the van drying out.)

SkyWatch links can be found here.

The boating activity in the loch was quite varied--small pleasure craft gave us their reflections (A bit early for Weekend Reflections hosted by James at Newtown Daily Photo but I have another for tomorrow.) and we were, of course, properly checked out by the local inspector:













Fishing boats tied up at the docks.

And the arrival and departure of the ferry to the Isle of Harris and Lewis was an important part of the day.