Days like this . . . Part one, Torridon Village

Every now and again a day comes along which is quite magic, the one which you hold jealousy to yourself and bring out the memory in the dark days of a long winter. This one had wall-to-wall sunshine, some of my favourite scenery in the world and just flowed in Soft Time from start to finish. If a day had an anthem this one would be Elbow:

Throw those curtains wide. One day a year like this would see me right

First great thing? The weather! Whilst most of England was under a deluge I was basking in sunshine, fluffy clouds and 18 degrees.




Then there was a newly resurfaced road through Glen Torridon which was a delight to drive along.



A 20 minute wait whilst the road was closed so that some passing places could be resurfaced resulted in a mixture of holiday makers from England, Holland, Germany and Australia all wandering around enjoying the environment and not the slightest bit bothered about the delay. The same cannot be said for a couple of vans with workmen who were just trying to get through a day's work and were thoroughly grumpy but who can blame them, whilst the rest of us were on vacation they were trying to earn a living. Nonetheless it was quite lovely (and not just today) to see how other people travel and hear their stories.



It took over an hour to travel nine miles and it was time for brunch when I finally arrived in Torridon village.








The rest of the time was idly spent doing very little at all - wandering around, coffee in the village shop, random (interesting) conversations with strangers, and just sitting staring at this:






Of course the place has changed since I was last there but the scenery, the space, the clean air, all were still quite magical. There was a temptation to go another few miles down the very narrow dead-end road to where we last stayed but I did not. That was a special trip when we watched otters EVERY SINGLE AFTERNOON and part of me didn't want to go back, be disappointed and break the spell. Maybe another time?

A scan of a not-very-good-to-start-with 30-year old picture:



(oh dammit, I am going to have to go back, and stay, so that I am there at the right time of day to see these beautiful creatures which I know still live in the area)