The Scottish village of Aviemore is best known as a skiing resort. My friend Alex’s parents have a time-share on a lodge there which this year they were not using, so Jeremy, Alex, Adrian and I (Damian) headed up to Scotland for a week in 1999 spent walking in the forest around the nearby Loch an Eilein and Loch Morlich.
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Sunday. We walked up the A-road to Loch Morlich. In the background, amongst the trees, you can glimpse an orange VW Van in the car perk.
Jeremy Dennis
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Sunday. Loch Morlich. An artistic shot of the opposite shore of the loch and the mountains beyond. The other side of these mountains is where people head when they want to go skiing.
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Sunday. Loch Morlich. A slightly different angle on that shot of the opposite shore of the loch and the mountains beyond.
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Sunday. On the shore of Loch Morlich.
Alex Ralph
Jeremy Dennis
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Sunday. Loch Morlich. Adrian also takes a snap of Jeremy and Alex.
Adrian Cox
Jeremy Dennis
Alex Ralph
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Monday. On the way to Loch an Eilein. We walked through some old forest on the way to the loch, which we circumnavigated. Jeremy tries out a tree stump for size.
Jeremy Dennis
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Monday. On the way to Lock an Eilein.
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Monday. Loch an Eilein. The castle on an island in middle of the Loch.
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Monday. Loch an Eilein. Jeremy clambers up one of the many ancient fallen tree.
Jeremy Dennis
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Monday. Loch an Eilein. Another broken tree by the loch. Is this one still alive?
Jeremy Dennis
Adrian Cox
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Tuesday. The lodge. It snowed on Monday night. This is the view from our back window. I rather wish I'd also taken a snap of it sans snow for comparison. There's nothing between us and the slope leading down to the river except for these trees and ground plants.
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Tuesday. We climbed down the slope behind our lodge to explore the river in the snow.
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Tuesday. The pebble bank at the side of the river direcly beneath out lodge was covered in snow which had drifted enough to reveal the sheltered side of the pebbles.
Alex Ralph
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Tuesday. The pebble bank by the river below our lodge. Jeremy's little pebble sculpture was also half-covered in snow.
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Tuesday. Near the lodge. Snow-covered logs.
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Thursday. We visited Aviemore village, which has its own stone circle in the middle of its equivalent of "suburbia", at the end of a cul-se-sac.
Jeremy Dennis
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The plaque on the rock says that part of the cairn has been covered with soil to protect it from everyday wear and tear.
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Thursday. Aviemore. Detail from the photo of the stone circle. I thought I would see if the camera has recorded enough detail to make in possible to read any of it.
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Thursday. Stone cirlce in Aviemore. Here we have one of the largest of the outlying rocks in the foreground and a bright red car in the background. Ancient and modern al in one.
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Friday. In the interests of documentary footage, I took a snap to show everyone what the lodge we were staying in looked like. This lodge is not ours but one just like it which was easier to photograph. You can see the gap between the floor of the lodge and the ground.
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Friday. This is a photo of the lodge we were staying in.
Adrian Cox
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Friday, Loch Morlich. The forest floor is covered in soft green hummocky plants of different sorts.
Jeremy Dennis
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Friday. Loch Morlich. Walking along the path in the forest.
Alex Ralph
Adrian Cox
Jeremy Dennis
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Friday. Loch Morlich. The path climbs up the side of a gorge. Here's what you see looking down and across the ravine.
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Friday. Loch Morlich. A tall tree. From the same location as the previous photo.
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Friday. Loch Morlich.
Jeremy Dennis
Adrian Cox
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Friday. Loch Morlich. Stomping along the path in a natural example of one-point perspective. Alex's rucksack is visible as the red dot at the intersection of the diagonals implied by the path and the distant mountains.
Adrian Cox
Alex Ralph
Jeremy Dennis
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Friday. Loch Morlich. At the turning point in the path -- where we emerged just above the tree-line. Some dead trees stand in a small grouping looking enigmatic, almost like a stone circle made of sticks.
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Sunday. Oxford. We are welcomed home by the sight of a bicycle-lane sign that has been knocked over by some careless motorist. Isn't that reassuring.
Jeremy Dennis
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Tuesday. Oxford. Paparazzi mode...
Jeremy Dennis