As part of my prize weekend, we also got taken on an off-road landrover safari in the Perthshire hills. It was fantastic! The guide was excellent - really very knowledgeable about pretty much every aspect: the wildlife, landscape, local industry and local history.
It was a beautiful day, though cold, and the views of the surrounding hills were really clear. Schiehallion really stood out, but we had great, clear views in every direction.
Highland Safaris provided binoculars and had a spotting scope too, which made all the difference to being able to get great close-up views of the wildlife.
We were lucky enough to see the red deer rut. You could hear the roar of the stage from a fair distance away, and we saw several large groups of deer and 3 stags. We didn't witness any real fighting though, as one of the stags seemed to see off another by just taking a few steps towards it.
We also saw several mountain hares, just starting to get their winter coats.
Our lunch was provided as part of the prize too, and we had it up in the hills in a small sort of bothy/hut. Lunch was excellent - hot soup, sandwiches, biscuits, fruit, crisps and a wee dram to wash it down with and give us some central heating, which was much appreciated as it was cold to be standing still outside for long periods watching the wildlife, and even when we were driving we had all of the windows open to make wildlife spotting and photography easier.
When we got back to the safari centre, we would happily have spent time looking around as they had a small deer herd, wildlife garden, cafe, gift shop and more, but we had to head off as it was already almost 5pm and we still had a long drive home.
Several hours driving in the dark on narrow, potentially icy roads was well worth it though to have spent such a nice weekend in Perthshire. Roll on the next one!
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