Thanks for the insights Martin :)  I dont think i'll be sticking around inverness very long tho - where i am planning on going is the tip just south of the letters NC on the grid.  Might check out some of the ones on the east coast to the north of inverness - the vague plan in my mind is to drive up that way... then come back down the other side.

It looks like if i am doing this it is at the start of May... so hopefully good enough weather and not so good that the midges bite my head off... will probably get some DEET coming to think about it - worked wonders in Peru

On the 30D front - i went into a camera shop today and asked about repairs for my auto exposure (dropped it in peru - been full manual since) - he quoted me £200... i can buy a new one for around £350! So i walked back out again :)  I think i'll add that £200 to the "next lens on list" fund :biggrin:

Oh and musically i'll probably buy some highland music along the lines of "Campbellton Loch I Wish you were Whisky"... or buy a few Billy Connolly recordings so i can get my ear in again... although how far a glaswegian accent will take me when i am so far north i dont know ;)

"In every colour, there's the light.
In every stone sleeps a crystal.
Remember the Shaman, when he used to say:
Man is the dream of the Dolphin"

Rich Meadows Photography