Gairloch Harbor

Steve and I stayed overnight in Gairloch, a small town on the shores of Loch Gairloch. There was a small harbor very near our hotel that is home to the various boat tours that serve the area. We had a nice wander around the pier the day of our arrival.

This is a screen shot I took of a Google Map of Loch Gairloch. If you look near the upper right, you'll see The Old Inn Gairloch. That was where we stayed. The harbor is just on the other side of the river that flows to the left of our hotel.

What an incredibly tall pier you may think to yourself. And it is. But that's because the difference between low and high tide is significant. Absolute low tide occurred during our visit that afternoon.

This rocky outcropping also shows the difference between the tide levels. Just above that black line on the rocks is the high tide mark.

A more distant shot of the same rock pile.

The little boat looked so forlorn and abandoned on the dry ground.

As we made our way along the pier, we spied something in the water. Was it a floating log or some sort of debris? No, it was moving. I suggested that maybe it was an otter because otters do live in the area. Just as I said that, the animal surfaced. Steve said it as I was thinking it: It was a seal!

A grey seal, in fact. When we toured the Moray Firth a week earlier, the tour guide mentioned that our area is home to both harbor and grey seals. But we only saw the cute harbor seals. The guide said grey seals weren't as cute. Harbor seals have slight smooshed, kind of cat-like faces. Whereas grey seals have longer, more dog-like snouts. From this vantage point, I couldn't determine if I agreed with the guide's beauty assessment or not.

This view is looking toward a spit of land that sticks out into the harbor. If you look at the earlier map, it's the area of land that is at 3 o'clock from Fraoch-eilean.

This view is looking more toward the center of the loch. You've got a peninsula on the right, and that's Glas Eilean in the distance.

A couple of boats launched during our visit. Rebecca Ann here seems to be a fishing vessel of some kind.

This is looking across the harbor and the southern end of the loch toward Isle Horrisdale.

An older gentleman taking his RIB (Rigid Inflatable Boat) out for a spin.

The seal disappeared for awhile, and then resurfaced.

These are creels, wicker shellfish traps the are popular in Scotland. They're an environmentally-sensitive form of shellfishing. Females with eggs and immature specimens can be safely returned to the water. I just liked the look of the pile of colorful traps.

As we left, I took one last photo of the poor, forlorn boat stranded at low tide.

We returned the next morning before we left town for our journey home. High tide was still about 45 minutes away, but you can easily see the drastic difference between the low tide water levels and the high tide ones. And this high tide was several meters shorter than the previous night's, according to the tide's charts.

The little forlorn boat isn't so forlorn anymore!

The water is nearly above the black line on the rocks, too.

The incoming tide pushed the boat, so it wasn't at the same angle as the day before. But it looks a lot nicer with water around it, doesn't it?

And look who's back! Steve and I were the only people out on the pier that morning, and we caught the seal's attention. He kept looking from Steve to me as if expecting us to lob him a fish.

He was only about ten feet away, so we got a good look at him. He was quite the heavy breather, so I dubbed him Vader.

He's certainly plump! After a few minutes of staring at us, he submerged in what I swear was a huff. I guess he was put out that we didn't feed him!

Look at that face, though! There is nothing at all ugly about this guy. I think he's adorable! And yes, I was quite tickled to see yet another seal in the wild. And this one was so close!

The seal wasn't the only fellow looking for food. Several gulls were checking out the nets on the various fishing vessels, hunting for missed bits of fish. This great black-backed gull was kind enough to pose for a photo.

We first saw this juvenile herring gull checking out the nets on a big trawler. A little while later, he flew up onto the pier with this crab in his beak. Good luck with that!

These big trawlers arrived when the tide was back in. We figured the draft of the boats was too high (deep?) for the low-tide water level. The red boat behind them is the same one in the second photo. See how much higher it sits at the pier?

The not-so-forlorn little boat.

This is a popular style of boat around here. They are so cute! I want one!