Mallaig, Ballaculish, Glencoe

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First excursion heading west into some unexplored sea coast areas. We were looking for the sea coast and the small villages there.
Things of note... there are no sugar maples here so the colours are very muted, shades of yellows and browns. Also the skies were over cast and very grey. Combine this with all of the exposed rock and photography becomes very challenging.
We drove some.... hmmmmm interesting roads (yeah that's the right phrase). The roads are roughly 8 feet wide (less in some points) and certainly not in a straight line. Throw in some hidden driveways, blind hills and switchbacks - makes for some excitement.
Finally made it to the end of the road in Mallaig (no really the road ended) and stopped for a seafood lunch (smoked salmon, mussels in white wine sauce & cullen skink).
For the unitiated cullen skink is a traditional cream soup made from a fish called skink found near Edinburgh in the Cullen river - in areas outside of Edinburgh it's made out of smoked haddock (or any smoked fish). Very thick and really great.
We had a special treat - got a to see a steam engine pull a train into the station at Mallaig - this one is called the Jacobite.
On the trip back we had to backtrack all the way out and turned towards Ballaculish which is the hill walking capitol of the UK. Lets translate hill walking... it's bloody mountain climbing... (sheesh - hill walking...)
Stopped for some pictures, coffee, tea & a ecclefechan tart ( pronounced ekel feken ). It is a traditional dessert and this one was smothered in custard....(Nigel's blood sugar just shot up 10 points). It is filled with raisins (Elke didn't have any)
OK that's enough about food .... wildlife.... stopped for scenery pictures and we could hear stags bellowing (mating season). Actually lucked out and and found 2 different groups of deer high in the hills. Hopefully we can get a little closer later on.

Tomorrow off to Inverness, Ullapool and Loch Maree (maybe I can sneak in a castle visit...)

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