Scotland Road-trip August 2022 Day 5

We start this edition of the blog at the end of Day 4 as we had reached the stunning location of Elgol, the quiet hamlet sits on a glacial loch and is surrounded by the most incredible mountain ranges off in the distance, I had only seen a handful of images of here before and one of those being Diarmuids, so I had little expectations other then wild waves and finally I would get to take some seascape shots, but seascape with a difference. Normally my horizon is clear with the odd ship sitting or crossing in my path, this location promised peaks to die for and the clouds that were building looked like they were going to be dare I say EPIC

Now they say never have expectations in photography as all it can lead to is disappointment, and this shoot would prove to be just that, the scenery was stunning, the clouds had built themselves up to be most epic, but what was missing was waves, the water was extremely calm and any hope I had of dramatic foregrounds was quickly dissipated upon arrival. We had travelled so far down to this location we just had to stay, wait it out and hope that it might change and provide us with the conditions we were so desperately hoping for.

Shortly after setting ourselves up for the night, I wanted to see what the weather had in store, but alas this wasn’t going to be possible due to zero mobile coverage in the area, to say it is remote is an understatement, I imagine not many people venture so far away from the beaten track to warrant having signal here, and the only sign of life was the fishing boats unloading cargo on the slipway below us. It was then that we met our new friend, a gentleman by the name of Eddie, who approached us to tell us that we had almost run him the road on his Bicycle . Yes thats right his Bicycle, you see Eddie wasn’t like anyone I had met before, Eddie was hardcore, he was a Scottish man who had been travelling around on his bicycle for the last 5 years, I will tell you more about his fascinating story later but for now let’s just say that we hadn’t been anywhere near him while driving, in fact we saw him alright albeit about 20 feet from the road at the top of the extremely steep decent down to the Hamlet of Elgol, so all I wanted to know was how the hell his brakes kept him alive going down and how he planned to also go back up when he was going to leave?

Eddie wasn’t going to leave that day, he was hard core remember so he was after pitching his tent in the garden of a house and was going to settle in for the night, it seems he wanted to settle in for the night with us, so I took it upon myself to engage in conversation with him, partly my choice and partly his as he opted to follow us out on to the rocky coastline for sunset while we attempted to make something out of nothing for the photoshoot. I learned a lot about Eddie during this short time, and firstly was that he wasn’t good with names. Even though I had told him my name was Darren over 10 times he kept calling me Dave, so naturally I had to immediately call him Trigg from them on ( Only Fools & Horses reference in case you are wondering ) Trigg was in his late sixties & was alone in this world other then his two sons and rather than take it easy in the latter part of his life he decided to go travelling and when I say travelling I mean travelling on his Bike. He had been to Australia, Japan, China and the USA for cross country trips and had also been to Ireland too, and now Trigg upon the request of his sons was sticking closer to home, and was travelling around Scotland on two wheels. He had a fascinating story to tell which he did while I was trying to find the shots and also record my Vlog, Trigg even helped out as my cameraman for a couple of scenes and in return I would take his phone and bring it out into the water with me to snap a shot for him, which as he told me, he would soon pass off as his own and how great a photographer he was. I guess I should take that as a compliment given he was willing to take the credit for my framing.

The photography was challenge that evening, we didn’t get any waves and the clouds that continuously rolled off the mountains in the distance never caught the light, nonetheless I enjoyed the shoot a lot and truth be known I also enjoyed the conversation. I hope that I am as active and sharp as Trigg is when I reach his vintage. It seems that Trigg also enjoyed the conversation as we heard a tap on the van in the darkness after sunset, he had brought a bottle of locally distilled Talisker Whisky and wanted to share it with us, his 3 new Irish friends.After a couple of hours of more conversation it was finally time to put day 4 to bed, we hit the pillow and hoped that the morning would yield some more favourable conditions that would really highlight just how stunning this place could be.

Waking at 5 am and felling like I had drank sour cat piss the night before I opened the van door only to again be greeted with disappointment. Not only was there no wave action but there was also now thick clouds above us, blocking out all light and hope of photography, so of course the natural thing to do in this circumstance is to roll over, and get some much needed rest before we had to pack up and head back along the long route towards the bridge that leads you off of Skye. It seems Trigg also had the same idea as he was fast asleep when we were leaving so we never got to say a proper goodbye, the question still remained though, how the hell was he going to get back up that steep hill?

Once again the journey on Skye plays a big part in the sights that we saw, and even though the cloud was thick we could still get a taster for the ridges and peaks that lay beyond them, it certainly wetted the appetite and made us all hungry for more. Our time on the Island was over however and as we reached the bridge off the island I had mixed feelings, Feelings of excitement that I had experienced it, feelings of sadness that it was over, feelings of hope that I had managed to bag some bangers and feelings of wonder that I would one day return and see this magical place again. It was time to go back to Glencoe for the afternoon, park up and be ready for the very long journey home to Ireland the next day.

Now you would think that we would have gotten our fill of photography adventures by now, but you would be wrong, when we arrived in Glencoe we decided to take a drive down a road who’s name sounds like it is right out of a movie, well it actually is, It’s called James Bond , Skyfall road, and running along it was a river that presented us with some stunning cascades. We just had to jump out and shoot. It wasn’t long however that we were beaten back by what seemed like millions of midges, all wanting to take a piece of us for their dinner, so we made a hasty retreat and decided enough was enough, our Scotland adventure was over, all that was left now was to cook up some dinner, settle in for the night and hit that long road, back to Glasgow, on to the ferry at Cairnryan, arrive in Larne and then onwards back to Limerick for Diarmuid & Cork for me the next day. Patrick however was staying on and over the next few days would go on to explore more of the many locations we didn’t get to see on our own adventure and create some memories of his own.

What a trip we had, with great people, scenery and of course photos, now the task of editing was to begin and to put the entire story together in video form which you can watch by clicking the link below.

Images below taken from this adventure, If you would like to purchase one for your own wall, please get in touch.