Loch Aline time

As the weather was playing ball (ie not raining or blowing a gale) we enjoyed a walk around the village. The Whitehouse restaurant used to be one of those "foodie heaven" places with a wait list for tables well into the future and prices to match. Recently taken over though so it will be interesting to see how it changes, or doesn't. Such a remote setting for a restaurant to work in the winter time:

Once more you can play the spot the Nordhavn game. Not too hard this time though. 

The community runs the little harbour area and has built a new social centre which includes a cafe. The cakes were good - made by a lady who lives on a farm on the opposite side of the loch so she has a 40 minute drive to get there each day with whatever she baked last night. Some commitment. We had to help them by doing the coffee and cake thing. The village stores is still well stocked and the community fuel pump was in use:

However, the prices were 25p / litre more than we had seen in Oban. The delights of rural living and all that. The local hotel was taken over a couple of months ago and was being transformed / tidied up so was firmly closed. Again a brave move taking on a business in what is not prime holiday area for folks who travel by car and is not "on the way" to anywhere either. 

Talking of tidying up, why do fishermen have to leave the quayside in this state?

The drums were full of old used oil..... Despite the temptation we kept ours on board until we get to a proper disposal place.

Loch Aline has the silica sand mine almost next to the harbour buildings and it always looks semi-abandoned:

However, it is very busy indeed, trucks were driving in and out of the tunnel on Sunday too collecting the high grade sand that is used for optical glass. It is supposed to be the only underground sand extraction in Europe. All the others just dig for it in quarries. Have a look at Lochaline quartz website and particularly the history section.

The sand is held in a large concrete enclosure and where it leaks out between the joins, you get some strange patterns:

Almost artistic, purely by chance. 

We were lucky in that the evening turned out to be perfect. It was calm, the clouds were slowly breaking up and some sun made an effort to join us. Here is the view looking back up the loch from the mine area (you can see how white and sandy the shoreline is):

and a later panoramic view from the boat during early evening:

Sunday was not quite a day of rest for us, we walked around to the Ardtornish estate offices. Here is the view from the head of the loch:

and turning 180 degrees, here is the stream feeding into it:

In the little estate shop we liberated an ice-cream each and then wandered back just as the rain began to fall. Timing is everything and ours was not ideal. By late afternoon we imagine that the stream was running a bit harder.

Looking at the week of strong wind forecasts ahead we pondered on where to go. Anchoring off one of the small islands would not be ideal as the wind direction was shifting significantly during the week meaning that a sheltered place one afternoon might be very exposed by the next morning. We like Loch Aline but did we want a week here? Maybe not so we opted to head for Tobermory where they have a Co-op food shop. Excitement lies ahead. 

Still in love with Loch Aline though, a great spot.