White rabbits!
We reluctantly board the ferry at St Margarets Hope en route to Gills Bay.
Not before stopping over at the beach at Churchill Barrier 1 to continue our search for the elusive GBs. Again sadly no success.
Once off the ferry we motor through spectacular scenery although shrouded in mist. Very atmospheric but a bit disappointing not to see the top of the many hills.
We stopped off for a lunch break at Dunnet beach …. Carol had read that GBs can be found on the North East part of the beach. So we had a search ….and ta da !! Graham found 2 of the little beauties ! Our dreams have been fulfilled…
We continued on over heather strewn moors with rather misty views of sea and hills.
Stopping frequently at passing places for other vans, cars and motor bikes. Last time - 8 years ago it felt like a solo trip across the wild frontier - this time a bit like a convoy. The tourist board have got a lot to answer for creating the NC500!
And views of lochs…
We arrived at our site for the night at Tongue on the Kyle of Kinloch - the place was packed out to the brim with campervans and tents. Even on the grass verges in front of reception. On the bend of the road the vans and bikers roared by until late evening when thankfully all was quiet…until 8am the next day. The campsite is a stopover for most folks. It’s in a good location but surrounding paths are marked private and the beach is not the greatest.
Day 12 . Kyle of Tongue. Sutherland.
Today was predicted to be HOT. So, as there were no walks accessible from the site we decided to drive to a nearby beach at Torrisdale - a surfers beach apparently - and have a picnic on the beach. We found a parking space next to a remote cemetery overlooking the beach, next to a sporty BMW. However as we walked over we discovered a river between us and the main beach, crossable now but when the tide comes in we would be cut off. We decide to give up and drive back to the viewing area we spotted earlier.
We cheerfully greeted a man parked next to us, who confirmed the viewing area was the place to be as there were bridges across the river. We jumped in the van and….. click. No activity at all when turning the ignition. Several attempts later it was clear we need roadside assistance and made the call.
Stuart, our new friend stayed with us for a chat. He has been here since May 21st and goes back to his job at Warwick University next week.
He is spending 3 months in a hotel nearby in a suite - pay in the University sector must be pretty ok.
We waited and waited…
Actually the time passed quite quickly. It helps when you have nice weather and a nice place to walk. Stuart kept us amused with his stories on travels, and a couple from London in a 1972 classic VW camper stopped for a while. The chap was an electrician working for London Underground and brought out his multimeter, diagnosing a faulty battery whilst his wife had several cuddles with Millie. He had all sorts of equipment in the VW as it breaks down regularly. Last event was a throttle cable breaking, fixed with some cable ties. Unfortunately he didn’t pack his jump leads.
Meanwhile the sun appeared from behind the clouds and it felt pleasantly warm….just right for a walk on a beach and lunch by the van.
Two and a half hours later a man from the local garage pitched up. A man of few words he diagnosed battery trouble and got out his engine defibrillator and got it going. We rang round, and rang round (most garages said at least a day to get a battery) and located an auto parts store with a suitable battery in stock. With advice to not stop we headed to Thurso with gusto for a new battery as they shut in 2 hours.
With all this going on we almost missed the BMW guy getting out of his car. Have to say his car looked mightly suspicious with the windows all steamed up ! He’d been asleep after driving up here through the night and woke up when the mechanic arrived.
The upside of returning to Thurso was it was great to revisit the scenery we missed due to the mist yesterday - It is a nice drive.
As an aside, do you know what was the vehicle we saw most of on our traverse (3 times) of this section of road?
Tesco Delivery Vans - loads of ‘em.
What would we do without Google?
Carol googled the make and model of Fiat to get the right battery rating, googled the address of the store, and googled the quickest route.
Once the battery was fitted - I hesitated about putting the socket set in but glad I did - we had to dispose of the old one. Google again showed the recycling centre was only a mile away, on our way back as it happened. This was a bit different to our local tip where you queue round the block to be let in, we were the only visitor and were in and out in 2 minutes.
Weather in Thurso was cold. A biting wind. On our way back to Tongue however it brightened up so we resolved to complete our goal and visit a beach. Farr beach was nearer and closer to walk to so we pulled into the car park and enjoyed half an hour or so de-stressing to the sound of the waves and the gorgeous sights. As an aside, do you remember the sights of Durdle Door in Dorset in the papers showing a queue down to the beach and people being turned away? Well feast your eyes on Farr Beach - empty.
A more leisurely drive back to Tongue we had to stop to take a pic of the beach at Bettyhill. There are literally loads of places to stop and gasp at the views, but you can’t stop at every one. This, however, must be in the running for one of the best beaches in the UK.
All in all, not too a bad day, given our van problems. Also, England footie on the telly trouncing Hungary 4-0.
Day 13, Friday 3rd Sept. Tongue to Scourie.
Just over 50 miles to drive today over the top of Scotland. Most of the road is single track with passing places with towering mist covered hills, sea locks and beautiful sandy beaches - this is a drive and a half! Seemed to take forever as we had to stop often at passing places to allow vehicles to pass - at one point it looked like a trail of ant like campervans forging their way on the NC 500… and lots of motorbikes and a few dedicated cyclists. Not much else to say except to let you look at the photos.
To go west 1.5 miles on the coast you have to do a 12 mile detour round Loch Eriboll, the deepest sea loch in UK, sometimes used by the Navy (inc submarines). It is stunning in the flesh, much better than the picture suggest, bordered by Ben Arnaboll (230m) and An Lean-Charn (520m)
The road is single track. All 12 miles of it, with a convoy of rented motorhomes all stopping to let each other pass. Here is the road to give you an idea.
At the end of the loch is Durness with a myriad of beaches surrounding. The water is freezing. Graham could only stand it for a few seconds.
Durness itself is home to Sango Sands caravan park. It has grown in popularity this year a hundred times since our last visit 8 years ago. There is a gift / cafe / chocolate shop in which we planned to have lunch. No chance. The car park was chokka, so we turned round and picnicked a few miles further on the Kyle of Durness. View both ways. Pretty.
We resolve not to stop any more and head to our next stop at Scourie, a campsite we’ve stayed at before with (another) stunning view over Scourie Bay. This is our view from the van. I mean, come on!
There is a lovely walk straight from the campsite round the west headland which Graham did with Millie while Carol undertook laundry duties. If you do come to Scourie please do this walk. It is truly lovely. Here are some pics.
View South
View North to Handa island
View back to our campsite, with Ben Stack (723m) in the background. You can just make out the campsite.
Day 14. Sat 4th Sept. Scourie to Gairloch 90 miles.
Another spectacular drive along the top of Scotland and then beginning to drive down the West coast.
First point of interest driving along Loch Assynt with the peaks of Ben More Assynt massif - a wilderness of mountain, moorland and mist.
We passed the ruins of Ardveck Castle. A Macleod stronghold from 1597 which fell to the Seaforth Mackenzies after a siege in 1691. (See later Inverewe for more on MacLeod vs Mackenzie).
Further on we stopped at Knockan Crag visitor centre near Elphin highlighting this area is one of the most important geological sites in the world. In 1859 the theory of thrust faults was developed by geologist James Nichol. Proving that older rock is pushed upwards meaning the top of a formation is not formed by the newest rock. There is a little display and examples of the rock layers. There was a small trail which Millie enjoyed for a while before being thrust into the van for further travel!
Progress is slow, one of the reasons is having to stop at each beauty spot - you have to pick and choose or you’ll be all day. Here’s a couple at Kylescu showing Loch a’ Chàirn Bhàin and Loch Gleann Dubh
Our road. South of Scourie the roads improve dramatically, room for two cars to pass without having to pull over. There are a myriad of car parking pull offs, most well occupied. But these people are Munro baggers - estate cars and 4x4s rather than tourers on motorbikes or in motorhomes.
Ullapool is green and pretty and had a gentile feel. Lots of nice houses with green manicured gardens, an oasis after the barren mountainous landscapes we’ve driven through. Sadly we didn’t stop at the viewpoint so here’s a library shot (ack: Duncan Macpherson). Ullapool is near the mouth of Loch Broom. This picture is taken rounding the bottom of Loch Broom so Ullapool is out of sight.
We move from Sutherland into Wester Ross after passing Ullapool. We have a choice of routes; north and anticlockwise or south and clockwise. We go anticlockwise and it’s a bit of a drag, skirting forest and moorland over pot-holed roads, through Poolewe and finally into Gairloch, which is actually a series of little villages spread out along Gailoch Bay (with quite a long walk between).
After a long drive we walked to the beach to stretch Millie’s legs, stopping at a viewpoint showing the church with a view of a hill which is the oldest rock in the UK. It’s the one with biggest hump nearest the centre of the picture.
The campsite is located next to a hotel and bar. A coffee shop, bookshop, small grocery shop and local butcher within a few minutes walk which we take advantage of.
And a Fish and Chips shop - Fish suppers all round tonight!
Day 15. Gairloch.
We know it will rain later today so set off fairly early for Flowerdale Bay past the old pier and harbour. As we headed along the coast path Carol spotted these wildflowers - she’d not seen them before
They’re Wild Sweet William, Saponaria officinalis as Carol’s new botany app informs. They have a lovely scent and appear to grow abundantly here along with the orange Montbretia.
There is a well laid out path through the Gairloch estate to the Flowerdale waterfall - a 1.5 hr round trip through woodland and by babbling braes.
0Carol had a peak at the waterfall from a distance but was happy for Graham and Millie to climb up the steep bits like mountain goats to take the obligatory photos.
We headed back and, as we had already walked the 2 miles to the car park at the start of the walk (instead of driving like sensible people), looked for a coffee stop to rest Carol’s legs. Coast Coffee at the harbour - shut, The Old Inn at the car park - shut, walk back to the golf club - shut (honesty box for visiting golfers), walk further back to Gairloch museum and café - shut. We managed to just get in to a café at the tourist centre along with everyone else as the rain belted down. And it stopped to allow us to walk back to the site before it started lashing it down again … the rest of the day was spent in the van planning our next few nights travel. Sadly the plan to visit the Isle of Mull next week will not materialise - both Mull and the ferries are full!
Day 15. Gairloch,
Today is garden visiting in the morning with a beach for Millie in the afternoon. A short 3 mile or so drive to Inverewe (pronounced Inverroo) Gardens and House. House shut during Covid. Once built by Osgood Mackenzie and now owned by the National Trust. The Mackenzie Clan were (generally) good eggs, (except for decimating the whole of the MacLeod clan completely in the 1400s and taking all their land in a family revenge thing), and were opposed to the clearances. By all accounts the garden is a feat of perseverance taking 20 years for the pine trees to do their job as a windbreak (and therefore block the view).
The garden was not cheap, and the NT shop less so (which didn’t stop Carol). A small bottle of Wester Ross gin and a couple of jars of preserves hardly causing a run on the bank ( C) .
The garden was typical of the type for Victorian plant collectors bringing plants and trees back from all over the world. For Graham, it was “a bit samey - pathways and overgrown plants/trees blocking out the vistas”. Ironically we are showing you the vistas. For Millie it was just boring (no sticks!), so we had a good walk round the pine forest afterwards where she could be let off the lead.
The tall trees walk
Giant Eucalyptus
Distant view of Poolewe village.
Views of the walled garden with estate grown produce- we couldn’t go in as it was a dog free zone.
On Mon and Tues the pop up Bothy Coffee is the only place for refreshments, it didn’t get good reviews so we head off into Poolewe. Carol had spotted a sign “Seafood” next to a cafe so we went off in search. The car park could hold about 4 cars and was advertised as “historic house tours” with a cafe taking second prominence, almost as an afterthought. We wandered tentatively inside “Do you take dogs?” “Yes no problem - inside or out?”. Well, what a surprise. A lovely oak panelled snooker room with quality food, and us the only patrons, although after we sat down a few other customers arrived,. Delicious trio of salmon salads for both of us followed by coffees with a delicious chocolate brownie.
Pool House is an upmarket B&B 300 year old house overlooking Loch Ewe with a varied history, once the home of Osgood Mackenzie before he built the bigger pile up the road. By tripadvisor reviews it is amazing, confirmed by our experience. Here is our table. The lovely server offered Millie a doggie biscuit - Millie was impressed.
On leaving the weather worsened but we continued with our plan to visit “The Big Sand”. Basically a large beach 3 miles from Gairloch with a campsite where we could have stayed but chose Gairloch centre. The big sand turned out to be private to the campsite and a bit like a holiday camp. Glad we didn’t stay there, we turned round at went to the big beach in Gairloch near the golf club and played chase the ball with Millie. If it doesn’t look warm it’s because it wasn’t but there were still 3 people swimming.
Tomorrow we travel further south, to Arisaig via Skye.
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