The Road goes ever on and on; Down from the door where it began;
Now far ahead the Road has gone; And I must follow, if I can;
Pursuing it with eager feet; Until it joins some larger way;
Where many paths and errands met; And whither then? I cannot say.

[JRR Tolkien, Lord of the Rings]

Tuesday 17 May 2011

The Landscape and The Wildlife

Maike left a comment a couple of days ago, asking a couple of questions which made me realise that I've been concentrating on commenting on the terrain, its ease of passage and the weather. I've described the effort involved in the walk, but not the rewards - which has been remiss of me as there are rewards aplenty.

Happily, even though the weather has been a little on the wet side, visibility has been good (except when a shower is approaching or upon us, when it decreases until the shower has passed). So, except for parts of yesterday when the cloud came down to 800m, we have been able to see the tops. Some of our visits to the top of lumpy bits have afforded some extensive views too.

Whether we have been walking along glens, down streams, across passes or over little lumps, it has all been quite lovely. The scenery of Glen Strathfarrar is incomparable with the heather/bog of, say, Eskdale Moor, but both have their appeal.

As for the wildlife, there is lots! It would be unusual to walk through these parts of Scotland for a day and not see deer, and we have been seeing plenty. Then there were the wild goats yesterday and three mountain hares today.

I can't name most of the birds that we see, but there are lots. From the LBJs (Little Brown Jobs) to the ubiquitous grouse, which startles you every time as it take off from a few feet away from you, whilst cackling loudly. Over the last couple of days lapwings have been making their presence known too; I think that we may have strayed close to a nest site or two. Alas, we didn't catch sight of the eagle by last night's pitch.

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2 comments:

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  2. Keep us updated with your bird spotting! Just had a good view of a heron and willow warbler in good song in an after-work walk to our nearest food-serving pub (deleted previous post -- too many typos!)

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