Family camping!

Lovely, new, palatial tent. (Whoops, managed to chop the ends off in the photograph!)

We went on the marine wildlife cruise, again. In fact, the boys and I went twice, the others decided they didn't want to, although they did enjoy it.

We went to Inverewe Gardens at Poolewe, which we all enjoyed.

The children went pony trekking in the rain, which was a bit of a damp for them, but they soon recovered after a hot shower and a hot dinner at the pub.

We only did one walk with the children this year, I think David and I both felt we'd done enough for a while! We had fabulous cliff views before the haar came in, but I still managed to spot a common seal pup on the rocks just before we got back to the cars.

We'd taken the boys fishing rods this year, so they did a bit of fishing off the rocks and they'd both got crabbing lines aswell, so they did a bit of that too. I think the crabbing was more successful, as they actually caught some of those, but put them all back of course.

We popped along the coast to see the lighthouse, which we didn't reach last year and we also went to the Gairloch museum, which the children loved! They got to mill some flour using two different and ancient methods and were allowed to keep the product of their efforts, which delighted them. I got to have a go at spinning on a wheel, which I thoroughly enjoyed but was totally bamboozled by. I have the yarn that I made, but I couldn't do it again without a nice little old lady to hand to keep me straight.

The weather was great, warm and bright. It rained a couple of times, but mainly at night, (apart from the pony trekking day) and it didn't get in the way of us doing anything. We saw half a dozen eagles, four of which may have been White Tailed Eagles, but whilst I could tell they were eagles, they were too distant for an amateur to distinguish with confidence. They were definitely eagles! We only had midge problems the last evening, when some bright spark suggested a walk along the beach to say goodbye after our fish and chip supper. We got a little nibbled on the way through the dunes, but the breeze from the sea was just enough to get rid of them when we got there and spotting another common seal just off the beach made it worth while.

Oh yes, the Evans family holiday to Gairloch was, yet again, a total success. The children are already making plans for our return next year. Guess what? So am I!!