DAY 14
Sunday June 5th
2016
Gills Bay to
Lochinver Miles
186
Today has been a journey of jaw dropping, eye watering
splendour, along with a touch of disappointment, one caused by nature and the
other by the Kirk.
I set off this morning to drive the 90 miles to the village of
Keoldale in order to catch the 11.00am ferry across the neck of the Kyle of
Durness. Once across you board a mini-bus that bounces along a track for one
and a half hours to get you to Cape Wrath, the most westerly point of
Britain. However, when I got there,
nature had determined that this was the time of low tide and the ferry could
not run before 2.00pm, so, I decided to save the three hours I would have spent
and have a more relaxing afternoon. I
was quite disappointed in not being able to reach one of my “cardinal points”
but, later in the day I found out that Cape Wrath is not the most westerly
point, it is the most north-westerly.
Apparently my sister was correct and Ardnamurchan Point is the most
westerly point on the British mainland.
I had been given every assurance (by so-called “experts”) that Cape
Wrath was the most westerly point, so to now find out that it isn’t and
Ardnamurchan Point is already on my itinerary, my disappointment has
dissipated. Nature was working with me.
Ferry not running
It was the wonders of nature that I have been totally bowled
over with today. My journey has been
constantly interrupted by the need to keep stopping to take photos. It is almost a case of around every corner
the view is better than the last.
I left Gills Bay and it was still cloudy and I understand that
the east coast has remained cloudy all day.
Eerily, when I reached the village of Reay, where the Dounreay nuclear
power station is located, the clouds parted and the sun began to shine and has
since shone all day, touching 22 degrees.
Before reaching Reay another of my misconceptions was
revealed. John O’Groats is not the most
northerly point of the British mainland, this is Dunnet Head about 10 miles
east of JOG. So why then does everyone
say that JOG is the furthest point north and go from Lands end to JOG, when they should be going to
Dunnet Head? The next thing I shall be
finding out is that Lands End is not the most southerly point! (In fact it isn’t, its Lizard Point and I will
be going there).
After Thurso and Scrabster the coastline remains little
changed. The countryside is fairly
boring, the drabness broken up only by the brightly flowering gorse. However as soon as you enter the County of
Sutherland, magical things happen. The
gorse becomes so bright and covers the roadways and hillsides that at one time
it felt as if I was driving towards the light at the end of the tunnel. There are now lots of sheep, many wandering
into the road. The beauty continues to
build. Breathtaking views across
moorland to lovely hills and even mountains that are like the Rockies near
Calgary, so high that nothing grows on the top of them. The road narrows and you are provided with
well signposted passing places. This is
unlike Devon where they hid the passing places to make your drive more
interesting. The narrow roads in Devon
are all well below hedge height so you can’t see what is coming. In Sutherland you can see for miles so it is
a happier place for drivers.
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Betty Hill near Tongue
The road rises and falls and you drive past lots of vivid blue
lochens (the name for small lochs). From a few miles before Tongue and then onwards, even the sea changes colour to a gorgeous greenish blue. I think they call it tongue because this is
your organ most affected and it may drop out from this point when you see the
beauty that awaits you.
Having had to miss the Cape Wrath ferry I drove on for another
fifty miles almost entirely on a single-track road. All drivers were very good and everyone
adjusts their speed so that you both arrive at a passing point at the same
time. The camper vans, of which there
were quite a number, also pull over to let other traffic pass. I found myself pulling over to allow past three
very high powered sports cars (Lamborghini, Ferrari and a Porsche). I discovered yesterday at JOG that there are
a number of Scottish firms that hire out these cars for a couple of days as a
“driving experience”. The firm send
along their own drivers and other vehicles as well but over three days you get to experience driving 3 or 4 very high powered vehicles. At JOG they even had a MacLaren. On these
roads however the excitement is intense, especially for the oncoming
traffic. They are being driven at speeds
of up to 90 miles an hour on a road where anything over 40 seems insane. Just as well their brakes are as good as
their engines!
You also see on these roads, vintage cars (today open topped
ones), packs of high powered modern motor cycles and smaller packs of vintage
motor cycles. I even saw a group of
vehicles dressed up for “Pete’s 40th bash”. There are of course lots of cyclists. I have since found out that my drive today
(and tomorrow) is part of something called “The North Coast 500”, which has been
established by the Scottish Tourist Board as a circuit of the most splendid
parts of the Highlands. It is also named
“500” (though it is not quite 500 miles) after a song by the Proclaimers, “I
would walk 500 miles ..”
On driving the road closest to the ocean, I will always follow
the road if it is a loop, but I have not always followed those roads that are
just there and back. So with time to
spare, as I was not going to Cape Wrath, I turned off on the road marked to
Tarbet. A seafood restaurant called “The
Seahouse” was signed and being Sunday I thought that I would treat myself to a
nice (fish) Sunday lunch. My stomach has
been crying out for some good healthy food.
This road was definitely single track and even some of the passing
places were very tight, but again an incredibly beautiful drive. It almost took my breath away as I saw the
location of the little beach and the restaurant. The restaurant was raised up on a slope
overlooking the blue water. There is
also a little ferry here to Handa Island, opposite, which is a bird sanctuary
and there were plenty of twitchers in evidence with their binoculars and long
lenses.
Tarbet
Unfortunately, and I’m sure that you are ahead of me here, the
restaurant was shut and the ferry not operating because this was a Sunday! Well I am sure that everyone deserves a day
of rest, but, unless the Kirk has insisted, why would you do this on Sunday
when most people are not at work and looking for lunch and a day out to a bird
sanctuary? I had my lunch anyway, out of
a can and cooked on my stove in the trunk of a car. At least I had saved a good bit of money I
consoled myself.
The road looped out and became just a track at one point before
putting me back on the larger single-carriageway “main road.” After approximately 12 slow miles (slow
because I had to keep stopping to take photographs!), I turned off again on
another loop to Drumbeg and the Old Man of Stoer. Once again this was an adventure in
wonderland and my dash cam gave out at this point as I had worn out the
battery. I took my life in my hands a
number of times as I just had to stop and take a photo and hope that someone
was not coming the other way, or even up behind me. On the map this road is edged with green
shading marking a road of exceptional beauty.
They were not wrong. If you buy a
road atlas in Britain and it has roads marked in green, go on them, you will
not be disappointed. Not only did this
road have gulleys either side of the road, which you definitely did not want to
get your wheels into, it also had one or two blind hill crests. They warn you to go slow, but even slowly you
have no idea if there is another vehicle coming at you as, at the point where
you are committed to driving over the top, you are actually looking at the sky!
I had to stop at the secret tea room in Drumbeg and take an ice
cream break. At this point there were
certainly more sheep and lambs on the road than vehicles. Later on on this road I literally had a
sheep, standing in the gulley, wait until I was about 10 feet away and then she
jumped out in front of me. I stopped in
time but the contents of the passenger seat (camera, maps etc) did not! Lambs are beautiful and cuddly but they grow
up into what must be the dumbest of all animals. (I learned at the Devon County Show that
lambs go to the great green pasture in the sky at about 12 to 15 weeks). At this precise moment I did not care. Older sheep though only turn into mutton and
I don’t think anyone eats that these days so any road kill would not be picked
up.
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| View from Stoer |
My last trip of the day was to Stoerhead and the
lighthouse. Again a rough track
road. The car park there is called the
walkers car park and there certainly seemd to be a lot of them, with hiking
boots, sticks, head scarves, shorts and maps. Most seemed to steaming gently in
the sunshine. One or two were even lying
in the grass taking a snooze.
Samantha took over for the last 12 miles of my journey and took
me through what I thought was someone’s farm yard and then another one. It would appear that this is crofting country
and there were numerous small farms making a living from the sheep and whatever
they could grow on the moorland soil. One road area had disappeared under sand
that had blown across from a lovely white sandy beach, which it seemed only the
sheep enjoyed. Indeed all of the beaches
I saw today were hardly used, but if these were anywhere else in the country,
especially in the south of England, I’m sure that you would to be able to walk
on them as they would be crowed. These
must be the best beaches in the whole of Britain, but no one uses them.
Having not gone to Cape Wrath I was able to arrive at my B&B
early. I wanted to get on top of my
emails and also send my blog from yesterday.
Last night’s B&B had good WiFi but a not very efficient router and
so it was almost impossible to get and keep a connection. When I got to the house where I am now staying, I found a notice
was on the door to say that they had gone shopping (to Ullapool, their nearest
town 37 miles away!) and would not be back until 5.00pm! My battery was dead in my computer, so there
was nothing for it than to have a cup of tea.
At 4.30pm there were 5 of us sitting on the step waiting for our hosts
to arrive.
I have a lovely single room overlooking the water, but it is
hot, hot, hot. Temperature here at the
moment (8.00pm) is now 22 degrees and no wind.
I had dinner in a local restaurant.
I had Teuchter chicken. No idea
what Teuchter is, but it must be a local word as the next door B&B has the
same name. It was chicken stuffed with
whiskey infused haggis and covered with pancetta. Very nice.
Lochinver is a very small village on Loch Inver. For what reason I cannot tell, they have 2 Severn
Class RNLI lifeboats, tied together in the harbor.
Tomorrow I hope to get away early and reach the Kyle of Lochalsh
from where I expect to drive to the Isle of Skye on Tuesday.
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