Silence

We walked for two hours westwards this morning, climbing from Ormsaigbeg into one of the wilder and more remote landscapes of western Ardnamurchan, into an area where, after a while, there weren't any sheep and no chance of seeing a human. It's rough, broken country, offering wonderful views northwards towards Achosnich, the lighthouse and the Small Isles alternating....

....with panoramas south across the Sound of Mull to Morvern, Bloody Bay and Beinn Tallaidh.

We threaded our way between the lumpy hills and squelched across the sodden ground until we reached Lochan na Cloiche, a lochan caught in a bowl-shaped hollow, its surface suspended high above the sea....

....where we sat for some time looking down the lochan and listening to the silence.

Absolute silence.

Nothing.

Not the call of a bird nor the slap of ripples along the lochan's shores.

Silence.

Silence that, in our world, is almost impossible to find....

....particularly when a Lockheed KC-130J Hercules 'Fat Albert' passes by.