A Damp Walk

No-one can ever accuse the weather here of being monotonous.  After the beautiful, sunny day we had yesterday, we were forecast a cloudy but dry day today - but the 'dry' bit didn't look too likely as we drove up the road out of the village, and looked across the valley towards the lower slopes of Ben Hiant.

We parked near Loch Mudle and walked south, climbing into the open, rolling countryside that rises towards Ben Hiant and Beinn na h-Urchrach. This view looks back towards Loch Mudle and one of the Estate's deer-shooting hides, while....

....this looks in the direction we were heading, at Beinn na h-Urchrach, its summit wreathed in low cloud.  By that time it had started raining, a drizzle so thin that it didn't require a waterproof.

This is usually a good area for inspecting Ardnamurchan Estate's red deer population, but most of them had obviously decided that the best place to spend the day was in the forestry, so the only deer we saw were these two young stags, their antlers still covered in velvet.

But there are always plenty of other things to look at, in this case a small but very smart green caterpillar enjoying a meal on a devil's bit scabeus flower.

We climbed until we were almost into the low cloud, and then turned and walked west along the contour, crossing some of the burns that drain the lower slopes.

There's a good choice of pretty spots for a picnic, but at this time of year picnics are popular with....

....the local midge population.  As long as we kept going they didn't bother us, but they arrived in hoards the minute we stopped.  A warm, still, slightly damp day is their idea of perfect weather.

We were out for a couple of hours.  As we walked back towards the car the two stags reappeared and watched us until we were safely out of their territory.

A map of the area is here.