Loch Torridon: the light show starts - Daniel and Clare's photos (9th December 2012)

We woke to the gales forecast. Squalls ran up the loch, bearing down on the water in visceral swirls, and tearing up curtains of spray from its surface. But inbetween, something amazing was happening...

The cottage gave us a grandstand view of all this. We did eventually venture out, after lunch, for a bracing walk back to the Mains again. Easy going with the wind behind us, still flattening the waves on the loch. Thankfully they eased for our return... What a day - lousy weather can turn up the most beautiful things occasionally. We've only once (in many years of having our heads in the clouds?) seen more spectacular mother-of-pearl skies than this. Some of you might remember the all-encompassing display in February 1996. But the colours weren't as good as today's... And to see it with a foreground of the pines of Torridon and Beinn Damh...

Squalls came and went - fast-moving and highly visible. We could have stayed in the environs of the cottage all day. Two days later, in totally different conditions, we did... But before that, our first foray into the glens.

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9th December: we woke to this: wild, but there's a bright spot in the sky which dropped a hint...	...soon realised, tantalisingly, in this, almost directly above us..	...before it returned to this	...Was the irisised "flag" a sole flicker? As the far side of the loch disappeared again, there were hints of colour above Beinn na h'Eaglaise
It was going to be a lively day: not much later, it cleared to this...	...light and dark...	with more colours quickly unfolding...	..colours.. ..and shapes..
...with crepuscular rays to the right...	...plus strong greens and a luminous greyish blue (on the right) which we've never seen before...	...still holding its own in a shrinking window of wild stuff...	...and even a patch of lilac
The mother-of-pearl gone, there was still some drama in the sky	..before the whistling, howling wind took over again	Another respite: very close to the shore, even in gale force winds you sometimes find quite flat water like this
Even some sun...	...but this soon misted away.	Looking towards the head of the loch, (left to right, with snow) Sgorr Dubh, Beinn Liath Mhor, Sgurr Ruadh were all out of cloud, and there's some sunshine over there, silhouetting Meall Dearg (right). But the wind wasn't abating.
Even from here, we could see snow blowing off Beinn Liath Mhor	Spray whipped up from the surface of the loch		Patches of light in the distance - no shafts visible, though.
We finally set out in the afternoon. There was water everywhere: this quite static standing wave went right over the shore road...			...and every crag had its waterfall
In a sheltered roadside hollow, this bramble's unripened berries were consistent red. (There's also a tiny heather flower on the left - 10th December!)		Waves, made then squashed flat by the wind: further towards the head of the loch	Beinn Damh, from Fasag

(Text and photos by Daniel and Clare Gordon. March 2013).

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