Our target for this day was North Harris and a trip to the beach of Huisinis or ‘Hoosh-Nish” as I believe it is pronounced.
We knew there was an Eagle observatory en-route so we decided we would call in there first.
As we turned off the main south road from Lewis to Harris, and made our way along the single track coastal path, there was a nice viewpoint early on on the B887 which we decided to stop for a photo.
What a good call that was…!
We spotted several red deer in the distance roaming around. Since I had the D500 with me, I zoomed in to the full 900mm and bagged a couple of shots.
There was one particular deer which kept staring back at me, and I really like the shot below…
As we were admiring the deer, a sea eagle flew past along the coastline so I took some shots.
At the full zoom, and in something of a hurry, these weren’t the sharpest shots but I will take a closer look on the computer at a later date.
To be fair, I don’t need any more sea eagle shots thanks to the earlier trip to Mull. That’s sound a little smug I know. Nevertheless, it was awesome to witness the eagle swooping along.
It was a good spot, and the eagle was not to be seen again, certainly not for the next half hour while we were there.
Just before we left this location, I got a shot looking out to sea and Taransay.
We parked at the lay-by leading up to the eagle observatory and had a decent walk there and back triggering the day’s FitBit step count.
At the observatory, we sat inside at looked at the mountain in front of us. There was a brief glimpse of an eagle in the distance but nothing going for a photo.
Back at the car, teas from the flask and biscuits consumed, we continued along the coast road to Huisinis.
First stop was a lovely scene with a boat where I tried to capture it with the road and background all in the shot.
As we approached the beach at the top of the road, we could see the amazing white sand and a blue sea ahead. Our path was blocked though by some highland cattle and I took this shot through the car window.
We parked up and headed to the beach which was pretty much empty as the watersports folks looked liked they’d finished for the day packing up their stuff.
I got some great shots with some lovely early evening light, as well as a couple of people on the beach to add a sense of scale.
Kathryn had walked up to the other beach and I suddenly thought, perhaps I should join her, as I realised I had done the main shots I wanted on this particular beach.
A quick walk up a neighbouring side road, and there in front of me was an amazing stone-laden shingle beach. As I walked down there, I could loads of stones and rocks with lovely patterns on them.
I walked as close to the sea as I could clambering over slippery rocks with my tripod acting as a support at times. Out came the polariser to reduce the reflections from the water to get this shot.
I could’ve stayed all day at this beach with the patterned rocks and rock pools providing lots of compositions. Unfortunately, it was getting late and it was time to leave.
On the way back up the hill, we met the highland cattle again and I got a good close up as we passed this one on the side of the road.
Squeezing the last bit of value out of this trip, we stopped by a postbox in the middle of nowhere, and I took this shot looking down the road.
In writing this blog since the trip, I think it’s obvious why Scotland is such an amazing place to visit. It’s not just the mountains, but the scenery in general, the places, the remoteness, the wildlife.
In terms of the yield in number of good shots, it was amazing.
One of my favourite days out of the trip and I would love to return one day in future.
Onwards and upwards…