Dolphin Watch at Gairloch

As part our our tour out to the north west, we went out on a boat trip with the hope of seeing some whales and dolphins around the Hebrides islands.  The town was called Gairloch or the "so-called" town as their hilariously grumpy receptionist dubbed it.  She was right in saying so because it was a bit of a scottish back woods.  That being said, it is also the historic seat of the MacKenzie Clan for the past 500 years or more.
It has a beautiful sandy beach but I wonder if it is ever warm enough to swim in.  That is why british/scottish athletes are so hardy I imagine!  

The distant murky mountains

It is supposed to be warmer than most scottish waters though because it benefits from the golf steam currents.  The tide was out when we arrived and it was a sunny day.  We put on our boiler suits and headed out to some of the islands that make up the Hebrides.  There are two islands that are covered in puffins.  The grumpy reception told me when we booked that there would be no puffins because they migrate on the 31st of July.  Luckily they were still there by the hundreds on the 1st of August.  We didn't see any whales but we saw the about 20 dolphins, several porpoises, some enormous jellyfish, some seals of various types (including the hilariously named shag) and a crap load of puffins.  To be honest, I didn't care if we saw whales because they don't exactly leap out of the water like dolphins do.  It's more like spotting a black smudge a mile away.  By the end of the four hours, we had worked up a serious hunger but everything was closed, so we had to survive on a muffin and some potato hoops for the two hour drive back to Inverness. 

A mom and her one month old calf

Here they are leaping together.  So cute!

Many many more puffins

The eye of the island

Some shags

A brightly beaked puffin