Scotland. Day 1 and 2. 29th to 30th June
This is the first permanent post on my 84-day North Atlantic trip to Northern Scotland, Lofoten Islands, Spitsbergen, Greenland and Iceland. I have previously posted temporary posts for the journey which I will go through and replace. The first few of these included commentaries but after a while they became increasingly brief with quickly-selected images only. The permanent posts will follow processing of all images and include more detailed descriptions and analyses.
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It took a 38-hour journey from leaving Canberra airport until I was able to access my room in the B&B in Lossiemouth.
Very early in the journey I saw a very curious sight although it had faded by the time I got my camera out. Far below the plane in the clouds was a silhouette of the plane with a white halo around it, for a while with some spectra. It is just visible towards the bottom of the image. What it must be I think is the atmosphere operating as a giant camera obscura. The sun is directly behind the plane and somehow the upper cloud layer is focusing an image onto the lower cloud layer.
My journey involved flying Canberra to Sydney, Sydney to Singapore, Singapore to Heathrow, bus to Gatwick, flight to Inverness, hire car to Lossiemouth. I arrived in Lossiemouth to meet up with Scott Marshall, who has another WordPress blog with images of Scotland. This was made more difficult because when I arrived I discovered that I could not send emails or make phone calls and there was no-one in the B&B.
Nonetheless I did meet up with Scott and his wife Mandy for a long congenial discussion in the Golf Club bar. After the first sip of beer I realized I was quite tired and thoughts of chasing round for photos disappeared. So as we sat back and chatted I saw various photographic opportunities appearing and disappearing in front of me and Scott showed me the possibilities of the view in front of us when the light and tide are right.
Later that night I wandered out in search of some food. Here is an image from the main street. It’s not that Lossiemouth is a ghost town, this is 9:30pm on a Sunday night and I found a patch of road with no cars.
Another view down a road near the town centre, towards the sea.
Here is a view of the coast and lighthouse from near the golf course, where we sat down for a beer the previous evening.
I presume it’s really the building that dates from 1629 rather than the restaurant. Charles I was on the throne then and just building up to his long period of conflicts with first the Scots and then the English Parliament.
It seems there are old places to buy in Lossiemouth and this one would have a sea view.
Murray Foote 
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Wonderful photos Murray. Can’t wait to see more.
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Thanks very much Jane. They’ll come out every two days, maybe more often sometimes.
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Ha, I can see I will be back looking through all the new stuff, looking forward to reading about your adventures.
Lossiemouth: now there is a name from my past – I was there in the early 80’s with one of the UK’s biggest aircraft users 🙂
The L/Inn sold very good Guinness ! but the streets were just a dead,,,,,,,
David.
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It’s going to be a long haul processing everything and writing it up. 15,000 images in all, though a fair amount of bracketing. I was in Lossiemouth on a Sunday and I don;t know whether the pubs were open but it was good to relax with a beer at the Golf Course after a long flight.
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Well I think you have captured the town well Murray – Some journey you have undertook and I will dig through most of it. Iceland is on my agenda for the future – It was great to have met you and I agree it was disappointing we didn’t get out to shoot some images together especially as you had traveled so far.
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Thanks, Scott. We didn’t get to shoot together but you did give me some useful pointers as to places to go.
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Just had some 55 views of the blog via the link on this page – many thanks 🙂
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My pleasure!
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Murray – I do wish we had the chance to meet again (perhaps I will come to you) I was so busy towards the end of my military career – now with time for reflection and well in to my second year as a full time photographer. Our conversation would have been so different. Mandy and I are now married 6 months and have visited Norway, Orkney and heading towards Paris. I have procured a Fuji X-T10 (85% of the spec of the XT1 and £500 cheaper) and getting used to the very different controls to that of my Nikon – So Paris here we come – wishing you well wherever you are taking photographs – Scott and Mandy.
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Hi Scott
Very slow being able to respond at the moment but have a brief window of an hour or so in the Falklands (prior to boarding a ship for South Georgia).
Have a great time in Paris. Never been there myself.
If you ever do come by Canberra, we have a spare bedroom and you’d be very welcome to stay.
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I served 4 months in Falkland Islands with the RAF I visited South Georgia and south Sandwich islands and amazing part of the planet enjoy
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