Glencoe at Speed

Last weekend, conditions in the Scottish mountains were pretty perfect so I headed up to the Nevis range with Kev for a day on the snowboard. From Glasgow, this means about a 3 hour drive up to Fort William via Glencoe and the stunningly beautiful Rannoch Moor. Due to a dead battery in the car, we ended up leaving home a bit later than intended which meant we ended up driving through Rannoch Moor just as the sun was setting behind the mountains with some absolutely stunning lighting.

We stopped in a couple of places to enjoy the snow and the view en route, but unfortunately couldn't stop the car in the moor itself. So, while Kev was driving, I attempted some out-the-window-at-60-mph shots. They're nothing like as nice as you would get from doing this properly, but sometimes the view is just too good to pass up and some of them didn't come out too badly!

Rannoch Moor in the snow at speed!
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It was probably one of the most stunning evenings to be in the mountains. Click for a larger version.

The boarding up Nevis was also beautiful, but since it was my first trip up a mountain in a year I elected to leave my DSLR in the car which only left me with my phone to try and do the view any justice at all. And it's got a really crap camera, but you get the idea!

Looking down on Fort William, Loch Eil and Loch Linnhe.
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Snow!!
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Coming back home we were a little early for the sunset, but thanks to the hordes of people who decided to park on the A82 to use the Glencoe ski resort (yes, it's a 60mph single carriageway; yes parking on it is stupidly dangerous and illegal. Sigh.) we got held up there by the police traffic control for just long enough for the light to get just a little bit better. This time around the view wasn't quite as nice up on the top of the moor, but we found a wee bit to stop at overlooking a frozen lochan which was just stunning and worth getting my shoes full of snow for!

Tracks leading up to a frozen lochan in Rannoch Moor
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It's nice to be outside again!

The sun is back!

We left Rockall Bank a couple of days ago and steamed back inshore (past foggy Rockall!) to a new site at the Hebridean Terrace Seamount which is about 50 miles or so west of the Outer Hebrides where we've been conducting a short survey for JNCC. Underwater the site looks pretty cool, with some impressive cliffs sticking up from the seabed and it looks like a completely different set of fish as well. It's not going to be possible to tell whether the differences are caused by depth (the seamount is much deeper than our previous sites, at 1200-1800m compared to 800m) or by the different habitat, but it's very interesting to see.

Unfortunately, the surface is less exciting and we've had barely any sightings of anything since we got here. Even our entourage of fulmars and gulls has left us now, so I've spent much of the weekend wondering what the hell to talk about today. In true British style, it turns out I'm going to rely on that old classic: the weather!

Well not really, but just enough to say that the clouds finally lifted last night and we were treated to the first clear(ish) sunset in almost two weeks which brought out the scientists and their cameras!

Sunset over the north-east Atlantic 

Watching the sun go down

Some silhouettes work out better than others!

See you on Wednesday for the last blog I'll make from JC073!