Highland Air~stream

We’ve just come back from a long weekend in the Scottish Highlands, where we spent three nights in that iconic piece of 20th Century Americana, the ‘Airstream’ Caravan.

And jolly good it was too! It was relatively new (they still sell them and the UK importers are based in Lancashire apparently) but the design still reflects the 1950s obsession with modernity, and you can’t help but imagine yourself in some road-trip movie or on the launchpad at Cape Canaveral.

The shower cubicle was way too small for me – I could barely move my arms – but otherwise we were well equipped with full cooking facilities, aircon/heating/hot water, and TV in our fairly spacious and comfy lounge. Views of the hills around Little Loch Broom made it all the more special.

We arrived early Saturday evening, having flown in to Inverness 11ish, picked up the car and spent a couple of hours in the town: had a nice lunch at Riva, on the river (doh! obviously) before raiding M&S for supplies and then set off for the West Coast.

Stopped off for a little walk at the deep gorge at Corrieshalloch and managed to avoid the impending downpour before continuing on the A832 to Gairloch, eventually turning right onto the 6 mile single-track approach to the B&B site at Badralloch. Smeeta didn’t know we were staying in the Airstream so it was all a bit of a surprise to be shown around the shiny tube of ‘aluminum’…

On Sunday we had an excellent breakfast in the main house, courtesy of Ali and Mick, and then set off around the coast-road towards Gairloch. We stopped at the lovely beach at Mellon Udrigle and embarked on a walk around the headland in the bright sunshine. We saw a pair of seals playing in an inlet and enjoyed fantastic views back to the mountains inland, where the weather didn’t look quite so appealing!

We stopped in Gairloch for a coffee and a beast of a plum scone 🙂 and then parked at Gairloch Golf Club to start a walk up to the waterfalls at Flowerdale – ancestral home of the Mackenzies. The walk followed the river up the Flowerdale Glen, through lush meadows and woods, gradually gaining height until we reached the lower of two waterfalls. It was starting to look ominously grey so we doubled back rather than take the longer return route over the exposed hills.

We then drove to Redpoint, at the very end of the B8056, from where we had views across the Minch to the North-eastern coast of the Isle of Skye, before heading home as the sun set over the Atlantic. On route we stopped at the Old Inn, Gairloch for a welcome beer/vodkaLime&Soda and some crisps. Our return to the Airstream was then delayed somewhat by a couple of injured sheep lying in the road to Badralloch, which were retrieved by some local lads just as I was wondering how best to move them.

On Monday we headed North via Ullapool to the coast road to Achiltibuie, stopping at the lovely beach at Achnahaird before rounding the headland and being smacked in the face by the stunning view of the Summer Isles laid out before us under dramatic skies.

Taking the next stretch of coast road we stopped at another lovely beach at Achmelvich, again in lovely sunshine, before the rain really hammered down for the next hour or so as we meandered along the winding single-track ‘road’ through remote villages, passing loch after loch after loch… It is so pretty but you become punch drunk with all the beautiful scenery – it’s hard to take it all in!

After more heavy rain on the main road back to Ullapool the clouds cleared and we ate very fresh fish and chips on the quayside before heading back to our shiny silver ‘home’.

More photos here on Flickr…

DIY Banksy

I’d been wanting to add some visual interest to our redecorated bedroom and finally got around to doing something about it. I took the Banksy book to work on Friday having picked out a few pieces which I thought might work on the wall, deciding on the one with the Leopard slinking away having broken through the ‘bar-code’ cage. I took a photo with my iPhone and then scaled it up to a size which would fit on 8 A4 pages: 80cm x 60cm. Then split this one image into the 8 individual A4 pieces and printed them out at work.

I spent Saturday morning carefully cutting around the parts of the image on each A4 page to make the stencil, which took a good four hours with a steady hand and a sharp blade. Having spent the afternoon at Tara’s in Chelmsford meeting some friends from Australia, we got back in the evening and I stuck the 8 panels on the wall with some spray-mount, protecting the surrounding area with plenty of newspaper; and then set to work with the spray can… Just as Banksy would have done 😉

I really wasn’t sure how it would come out, so it was quite exciting to peel off the mask and reveal the final result… was pretty happy with it in the end. Looks good opposite the Tom Lewis print above the fireplace.