Mayumi and I have just spent a week centred in the tiny village of Stoer in the north-western district of Assynt, Sutherland county, arguably Scotland's most scenic region. The landscapes are dramatic and the weather was dramatic too - dramatically good and dramatically bad - and some patience was required to wait out the bad spells.
I can't describe the region without sounding like a tourist brochure, so I'll let the images do the talking. I will be posting batches of jpegs over the next couple of days, and I'll start with the journey north.
1. and 2. Water-carved rock along the River Garaidh, Inverness-shire.
3. Fireweed by the roadside in Easter Ross.
4. and 5. Rivers flow into Loch Shin, east Sutherland.
6. and 7. Mixed conifer forest at Achfary, Sutherland.
8. and 9. Heading northwest across Sutherland, the hills start to get bigger.
10. Loch More and Ben Stac.