25th December

What better way to start the day than with Drambuie porridge, served with Morrison's aromatic, moist, soft brown sugar - the culinary discovery of the holiday!!

We have opted out of Christmas for the second year and it's quite liberating. The hardest thing is to make other people understand that we are not taking part in all the commercial side of things but we do still have a nice Christmas day and dinner - anyway, lets get on with the day!

Breakfast had, dishes done, hip flask, ready - time for a walk to Camus Darach, and for my new hat to get its first outing. After looking at the map, we had decided that where we were previously, wasn't Camus Darach after all (we hadn't followed the path far enough) and we didn't want to leave without having visited the famous beach. This time we drove to a parking place near the Camus Darach campsite, from where there was a fairly well defined, short path.

It was another lovely but freezing day and the sky was bright inspite of all the clouds, and we soon reached the deserted, broad expanse of Camus Darach beach.

It was all so beautiful I had to take a phone picture and send it to my daughter, author of Samantha's Kitschen and budding photographer extraordinaire!

We spent an amazing time just soaking up the scenery before heading back to little car, stopping for a spot of rock pooling on the way.

John, trying to pretend he was on top of a mountain, supervised the rock pooling activity from the dizzy heights (well, from a rock about 18 inches high!)

21st December - first attempt at An Camus Daroch - the 'Local Hero' beach

Another bright, cold, crisp day. Thermals and boots on, hip flask ready and we're away - in search of An Camus Darach, more popularly known as the 'Local Hero' beach from the film of that name. We set out from the car park on the opposite side of the road from the golf course, on the road between Back of Keppoch and Morar. It was a beautiful day, with a low winter's sun.

Although paths and rocks (some scrambling was involved!) were thick with ice and treacherous in places, the walk was well worth the effort. Sturdy boots with good soles are recommended! It's not a particularly long walk, but taking in the view, rock pooling and just generally enjoying the place all take some time, especially on such a cold day. As ever, the views of Eigg and Rum were breath-taking. We also came across some squidgy, quilt/marshmallow type sand - something new to both of us!! You can see it in the foreground of the next photo.

On the way back we were walking towards the setting sun.

It was too cold to stop for a picnic and our Mars bars had frozen in the back pack, so we waited until we got back to the car to warm ourselves with some hot coffee and a nip of Drambuie!