Scotland Holiday & Dolphin Watching July 2004 -
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For our 2004 holiday we travelled to the Highlands
of Scotland, renting a comfortable holiday cottage near Nairn in
Morayshire. Our main reason for choosing this part of Scotland
was to enjoy a fantastic Red Letter Day gift we received to go dolphin
watching on the Moray Firth with Sailingwild on board 'Dolphinicity'.
This is page one of three.
Scottish
Highlands 1 | Scottish Highlands 2 | Scottish Highlands 3
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650 miles after leaving Sussex we arrived at our Scotland holiday
cottage in Piperhill, near Nairn, Morayshire. Belinda was just
about to make Mike a wee cup of tea to drink in the conservatory.
Looking...
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...the other way from the last picture, we had an admirable view across
the Scottish Highland countryside towards Nairn on the Moray
Firth. Our holiday cottage was certainly in a lovely setting.
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On the first day of our holiday in Scotland we visited Nairn and after
lunch in a nice wee café we heard bagpipe music and found this
bandstand complete with a band playing. Beyond the bandstand is
the Moray Firth and, way in the distance, Inverness.
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Back in the holiday cottage now, day 2 and Mike cooked breakfast.
Now this guy can multi-task, stirring the scrambled eggs and baked
beans at the same time! Pity the sausages burnt in the grill and
the popped-up toast went cold. Hey, nice pinny!
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On our second day in Scotland we partook our Red Letter Day trip to go
dolphin watching. The first part of of the experience took place
at the informative WDCS Moray Firth Wildlife Centre at Spey Bay.
At the...
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...Wildlife Centre we saw an exhibition and video on the dolphins
and other wildlife found in this area of Scotland, together with a
complimentary tea in the café. These are some murals we viewed
outside.
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Dolphins are often spotted on the Moray Firth from the WDCS Wildlife
Centre and here Mike thought he'd spotted one! We were given the
Red Letter Day experience as a Christmas gift by Belinda's sister,
Clare, hence the reason for going to Scotland this year for our
holiday. After leaving Spey Bay...
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...we drove west along the Moray Firth to Lossiemouth for the second
part of the experience - a cruise out on 'Dolphinicity' with
Sailingwild and skipper Tony to enjoy dolphin watching! So after
getting tangled in the life jacket and safety rope, we received our
safety instruction and set sail...
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...leaving Lossiemouth behind. Despite it about to rain it was
quite bright out on the Moray Firth, hence the squint. The 36ft
ketch Dolphinicity uses Bio Fuel and pollution filters and is one of
the most environmentally friendly dolphin watching vessel afloat.
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With skipper Tony from Sailingwild at the helm, we spotted some
dolphins away in the distance and headed in their general
direction. The sails on Dolphinicity couldn't be used on our
cruise as there wasn't enough wind that day.
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Here's Mike all set to dolphin watch and film the dolphins we hoped to
spot out on the Moray Firth. Unfortunately it started raining
just as the first dolphins appeared - well, it was Scotland after all.
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Wow! We were well rewarded with dolphins swimming up on both
sides of the yacht and gracefully ducking and diving before our very
eyes! We shot some video too, see our highland videos.
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It's behind you! An acrobatic dolphin performed a huge leap out
of the Moray Firth and back again. Sailingwild's policy is to
slowly cruise up to an area, cut the engine and wait for dolphins to
swim up to the boat rather than the other way round.
Check out our tourist resources
for relevant dolphin watching websites.
(Update 2007: Sailingwild is no longer trading.
However, there are other dolphin spotting operators)
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So our with our thrilling trip over the Sailingwild boat Dolphinicity
was once more moored in the harbour at Lossiemouth. What a
fantastic dolphin watching experience! Our Highland holiday continues with a trip up the
Cairn Gorm Mountain >>>
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Scottish Highlands
1 | Scottish Highlands 2 | Scottish Highlands 3
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