The Adventure begins....

Well it seemed quite surreal driving ever further North with the first load of stuff but as soon as I arrived at the new 'digs' it all felt quite exciting and relaxing. A day or so was spent settling in before wandering down to the Firth of Beauly to try and spot dolphins, which is 5 minutes walk from the house.

Great views on the drive

No caption needed!

I sat out the first night in the garden, watching the waxing moon, listening to geese and other water fowl on the Firth, whilst sampling a wee dram and thought - yep this will do!

My arrival coincided with summer, and so on Wednesday Loz and I headed North West with a plan to climb the Old Man of Stoer, which would have been a cool first ever Scottish rock climb. The views of Stac Pollaidh, the Summer Isles, and sea were stunning as we road tripped out West.

Arriving at the lighthouse it was annoying to hear from the tea van 'lady' (very friendly/nice person) that a (climbing club) team of 9 climbers had headed out to climb her 1 hour ago!! This scuppered our plans.

I was pretty annoyed, I mean 9 climber for goodness sake on a small remote sea stack!! We (Loz) made the sensible decision to go somewhere else and so we headed to Reiff down the coast. Loz had arranged a landward film crew for our ascent (Rich - Loz's friend who lives in the wilds up this way), so he joined us and we trucked down to Reiff.

Reiff is fantastic, compact sandstone cliffs by the sea with easy access. We had a very enjoyable time climbing 5-6 routes (can't remember!), the best being Black Gold, and Black Pig, interspersed with some swimming in the sea and exploring.

I clearly need more (Scottish) sun!

A cup of tea back at the van soaking up the views was a fitting end, before the much needed fish and chips at Ullapool on the way through. I think I like the Highlands (a lot)!