Summer in the Wild West of Scotland - Day 1 - Lost Again

**Rescuer** · 13 Jul 21, 10:40 PM

Summer in the Wild West of Scotland - Day 1 - Lost Again - 3.7.21

Index is here

We were late in getting going today after the long drive and late arrival yesterday.

I had a not too ambitious plan then I doubted it, made another plan which I then discovered wasn’t going to work and finally I went back to the original plan.

We had toast and drinks while organising and debating the day and a wander along the shore at the bottom of the garden.

There would be no swimming here - jellyfish soup!

Just to give you an idea of the walking path down to the cottage, this is a picture from the road.

Then we eventually headed out to have a full breakfast in Acharacle. Cafe Tioram was about a 15 minute drive from the cottage. They had loads of outdoor seating so it was breakfast with a view.

The food was lovely and great portion sizes. We all had full breakfasts with Ds as the only one who doesn’t ask for something not to be included. No Eggs for me, No beans, mushrooms or tomato for Dh. At least we managed to raise a child less fussy than us 😂

After finally choosing what to do after breakfast the plan was a woodland walk in Ariundale Nature Reserve. It didn’t seem too taxing but it looked interesting enough to keep Ds occupied. I thought we knew where we were going but it didn’t go to plan. We felt we might be a bit lost and put the sat nav on which took us to completely the wrong place. We’d followed the directions along a single track road before that and had to pull in to let a car pass and that’s where we doubted ourselves, turns out we were literally 200 yards away when we turned round. 🤦.

Carrying on we ended up in Strontian where we picked up snacks and bought Mil some local hand wash and cream and the lovely woman in the shop put us right on our travels.

We headed back where we had been earlier and found the parking for the reserve easily enough this time.

We wanted to do the full walk but one of the bridges was closed. On our way into the reserve we found the place that the horses normally cross the stream and all agreed we’d be fine crossing there on the way back with the bridge closed.

The walk was pleasant and only about 4.5km. We are used to doing all our walking on the beach so even though it was a short distance it was a little more strenuous than we are used to, not too much so but I was glad that we hadn’t attempted anything much more ambitious than this on our first day.

We saw a few butterflies in terms of wildlife but not much else, the midgies were having a rest day so that was good, I was still top to toe in smidge though. The scenery at points was lovely though and we all enjoyed it.

Ds was desperate to go back to the cottage for internet time but his cries were ignored and we stopped off at Ariundle Center for a drink and a snack. A nice wee place. We had tiffin, scone and diet cokes. They had one extra bit of tiffin left after we got ours and the woman split it with Ds and I as she thought it wasn’t that big. You can sit outside with lovely views over the countryside but it had just started spittering with rain so we sat inside.

Again we passed some lovely scenery on the way back.

I’d booked dinner for tonight at a place called Mingarry park. This was about a 25 minute drive for the cottage. What a lovely setting. They’d recently put pods up in the garden and if you were staying there and having drinks it would have been fantastic.

The staff were lovely and we were greeted straight away as we went in. The menu was really appealing.

They brought tomato bread with salted butter and harissa butter. Really nice.

We ordered 3 of the starters and had a bit of each. Salmon, pate and scallops. They were amazing, Ds thought the scallops were the best but the other 2 were just as good, the salmon was my favourite.

They do stuff with their own venison here so Dh and I ordered that and Ds had the lamb. Both main courses were delicious but I think the lamb just nabbed the top spot.

No dessert as we were all full enough for the drive home. I’d absolutely recommend eating here if you are ever in this area.

We Finished of the night watching Restless Natives, a golden oldie for us but a new experience for DS. He enjoyed it.

A really nice day to acclimatise to our settings.

Dollymixture · 14 Jul 21, 11:04 AM

The evening meal looks amazing! Glad the midges took a day off

Originally Posted by Rescuer