Durness to Skye

The drive to our next site in Durness was lovely, and once we were past the Dounreay Nuclear Power Plant other traffic was rare (Dounreay is being decommissioned, and we drove passed just as the shift had finished, we know this because loads of cars were whizzing out of there with all the drivers and passengers glowing bright yellow!). We then started over the mountains and the A road got narrower until it was just a single track road, the sight of other cars became rare and the views became Big. The site has a lovely beach and on arrival we saw a nosey seal about 100yds out to sea who was poking his head up to see what we were up to!

We’ve been down the road to Smoo Cave. A huge cathedral size sea-cave is the entrance that greets you, and once you go in there is a small walkway that takes you further into the cave where a small river is emerging. We ventured in and were taken aback by the amount of spray coming from the huge waterfall in there, after all the rain we had the night before it turned what is normally a stream into a torrent and we both ended up soaked just from the spray! We walked around to the top of the cave and had a look down where the river plunges from the land into the cave, this was just before a coach load of foreign tourists turned up, so we hot footed it back to Tonks and carried on up the road to the Balnakeil Craft Village. This surreal little place is a series of concrete buildings that used to be a WW2 early warning centre, after the war was over it was sold to a bunch of artists who turned it into studios and houses. We saw paintings, potteries, ceramics, embroidering, enamelling, chocolate making and even a bookshop. After leaving them to it we found ourselves on Balnakeil Bay, a beautiful white sandy beach just to the east of Cape Wrath surrounded by huge sand dunes and cliffs.

We wanted to visit Cape Wrath while we were here, so we got up early and made our way to the car park where the passenger ferry takes you across. It’s a tiny boat that carries passengers the short trip across the Kyle of Durness, and from there is a minibus that takes you on the 11 mile journey out to the lighthouse. The car park was full when we got there, but we squeezed in and wandered down to the ferry landing. It was very busy and there were people waiting on both sides to get across, it was too busy for us which was quite a relief as they wanted £15 each for the trip! Instead we drove back through Durness to a beach on the other side called Traigh Allt Chailgeag. We went there for a play on the massive sand dunes that ran up the cove between the cliff faces. We ran up to the top (or staggered, by the time we were half way – it was really steep!) and the dogs charged up after us, the run down was obviously easier, with the dogs going so fast their legs couldn’t keep up!
Back at the ‘van we sat outside in the sun watching the new campers arrive. This is one of the more unusual campsites we have stayed in due to the fact everyone is so transient. In the evening loads of campervans and tents arrive to the point where the site is bursting, then by mid morning the next day nearly all of them have packed up and gone leaving the site feeling empty, then later the next lot arrive! It’s also the first place on our trip where we have felt more like foreigners than Brits, with the majority of people here being from the continent; French, Italians, Germans, Dutch, we don’t know whether to say ‘hello’ to people or ‘bonjour’ or ‘gudentaag’!

The next day was move day, but we hadn’t got our next site booked as we planned to just find a lay-by to stop in (you can legally do this in Scotland). We drove a few miles down the road, and parked up in a lay by in Rhiconich, we left the van here because we wanted to head to a spot down a narrow B road; Sandwood Bay is a beach just the other side of the village of Kinlochbervie, and is only accessible by a 4.5 mile walk through peat bog and over rocky ground. We parked Tonks at the head of the track and Phil set off on his bike and Linda walked the dogs, she didn’t want to walk all the way to the beach, but there was a loch half way which she walked to instead. Phil made it to the beach after passing a lot of walkers and a couple of other bikers and once he got there spotted that there was already quite a few people on the beach. After a few photos he headed back and met Linda on the track who was also surprised at the number of people she met on the way, so much for being isolated!
Back at the ‘van we re-hiched and set off on our way to find a lay-by to wild camp in.. We drove several miles down the A894 (this is the main road up here, and is mainly single track road with passing places!) and reached the tiny village of Scourie where we spotted a mobile Royal Bank of Scotland van parked in a lay-by. Linda had a cheque to pay in so we pulled over and she approached the van which looked like an armour plated mobile chip shop! Anyway, she handed her cheque over and hopefully they haven’t used the dosh to buy batter! We found a lay-by just a bit further on from Scourie which was perfect, it had a lovely view over Loch Duartmore with the forest and mountains behind it. After settling in we had a few heavy showers which brought out the midges.. boy, did it bring out the midges! Literally millions of the things were surrounding the ‘van and they were swarming around the windows! Every now and then a car would stop and the occupants would get out to take a photo of the lovely view, they weren’t there long, and we took great pleasure in watching as they flung their arms up and slapped their faces before jumping back in their cars and roaring off! Eventually the sun went down and as night came we thought the midges would be gone and it would be safe to let the dogs out, just in case Phil put on his mosquito hood and jumper before venturing out. It was hell, they were inside the hood in about 30 seconds after I stepped out and hands and face were covered in the bitey little blighters, I rushed back in the ‘van and closing the door but wasn’t quick enough, there were now hundreds inside the ‘van.. Panic ensued, with both of us flinging our arms around and Linda using newspaper to kill as many as possible, this went on for about half an hour and was probably pay back for all those people we laughed at!


No midges the next morning thank goodness. While we were packing up, another caravan drove past and gave us a beep and to our surprise it was Mike and Dot who we met on the other side of Scotland at Dornoch. They were on their way home, so we invited them in for a brew and we caught up on each others travels, surprised at the coincidence of bumping into each other again!
The drive through this part of Scotland is nothing short of spectacular, the views change with every corner and brow of every hill, Lochs, beaches, islands and huge mountains are in abundance, and a great lack of human habitation. We were lucky to be driving this section on such a clear day.
Mike and Dot recommended having a look at Corrieshalloch Gorge, so on the way past we parked up and went for a walk. They weren’t wrong, the gorge was huge. A massive deep hole in the landscape which was formed back when glaciers used to roam these parts, and now the small river tumbles down the gap they left to create the impressive Falls of Messach. The National Trust look after the area, and there is a suspension footbridge (built by the designer of the Forth Bridge), right over the point where the river falls hundreds of feet below, as you stand on the bridge and look down it wobbles slightly and made us both feel a bit funny! Further down, a metal viewing platform has been built hanging out over the gorge, this proved to be another very impressive way to view the falls and the bridge. Once we got back to the car we found that we’d been blocked in by coaches, Phil had a rant at the Spanish driver and finally he moved!
Eventually we arrived at a very busy Poolewe Camping and Caravan Club site and by now the wind had picked up to gale force, luckily they had a space and we set about settling in. The wardens were really helpful and even pulled our ‘van onto levelling blocks using their little tractor as the ground was too soft for Tonks!


There was a sponsored event on in the village today called the West Highland Challenge, the main event is a 25mile run over the mountain ranges, but there was also a 13mile run and a 7mile walk, so after we had breakfast and packed lunch we decided to set out on the 7 mile walk. We popped to the registration hall where there was a sign saying no entries on the day, but not to be put off, we set off anyway, following the others! It was a lovely walk that took us into the NTS owned Invercauld estate and around Loch Kernsary, the first half being on a narrow path and the return route on a land rover track. It was great fun and took us just over 2hrs, at the finish we sat at the edge of the loch for lunch and to let our aching feet recover!

It rained all night, and the next day it rained constantly! So we moped about in the ‘van all day reading and doing not much at all. It was great!

Linda has been for a look round Inverewe Gardens. The gardens are owned by the National Trust and have a huge variety of native and exotic plants, proving that Scotland does sometimes have warm weather! I really enjoyed all of the 54 acres but my favourite was the walled garden which mixed small plots of veg with flower plots and fruit trees in the lawned paths down the middle, it looked very productive. Phil went off in the rain on his bike. An exhausting 14 mile ride took him over the Tollie Path, a mountain pass with great views of Loch Maree and the mountain of Slioch, the only trouble with the views was being unable to stop and enjoy them due to the very real fear of being eaten by midgies!


We moved the next day down the road to the Caravan Club’s Kinlochewe site. We chose a pitch and set up and then to the delight of our neighbours Phil had a go on the unicycle with Linda as his able assistant, the warden stopped his lawn mowing and one chap even sat on the wall to watch!

The site is overlooked by Beinn Eighe which is the huge range of mountains which dominates the area surrounding Kinlochewe, the area is a national nature reserve. We had a look around the visitor centre and did a few walks in the area.
Phil’s been on his bike to do a ride recommended in a guide book, it turned out to be a 16 mile epic, the 10 mile climb up to Lochan Fada was tiring, but the views and the loch itself were stunning, at the loch I passed some wild campers, and I swear one of them had been skinny dipping, I shouted “Lovely Day!” as I pedalled past! The downhill was just as tough as the up, it was boggy, rocky and even spat me over the handlebars at one point! I arrived back at the ‘van exhausted, muddy and a bit bloody.

We got chatting to another neighbour, Tony who was leaving today, he’s from the Scottish Borders and was touring in his Eriba pop-top caravan, which he kindly showed us both inside after we told him we had a folding camper (it’s amazing what they can fit in these things!). Yet again, we had to wave off another new friend!

Phil and Prince did the 4 mile circular route called the Beinn Eighe Ridge that climbs 1,800 feet in 1.5 miles, it was a lovely day and the views of the surrounding mountains were breathtaking, I could even see the ‘van as a tiny dot in the village! Linda and Smudge didn’t fancy the steep scramble of the Ridge walk so they went and did the Pony Track walk, also at Beinn Eighe, this ended up being 6.5 miles with a climb of 1600 feet in 3 miles, so when she got back we had a debate about who worked the hardest!

Applecross had not only been recommended by Mike and Dot, but also featured in our Beautiful Britain book so that’s where we headed next. We set out down the main A Road (singletrack – with passing places!) until we got to the narrow unclassified road which takes you along the coast and around the mountains, we stopped on the way and had our picnic looking out over Loch Torridon and the mountains beyond. We could see a tiny white house on the base of the mountain with no obvious means of getting to it, and when I looked at the OS map the only access to it was by footpath! We carried on round, mistaking a salmon fishery out at sea for what we thought was a submarine, and eventually came to the little village of Applecross where we stopped for a pint in the Inn. On our way out a few of the people sat on the benches outside were looking through their binoculars at the same spot, we asked a couple what they had seen and they gave us their binoculars so that we could look at the Trident Submarine that had come into the Loch! (told you! – Linda). The 320ft nuclear submarine occasionally comes in to moor here when the Navy are doing testing in the area, and they use the small building we had seen earlier as a communications base!
The route back to the main road took us along another unclassified road which goes straight over the mountains on a twisty road called the Pass Of The Cattle, hairpin corners, steep gradient and the surrounding vertical mountains make you feel like you’re in the Alps, it was a lovely drive and we could see why we passed so many motorbikes on the way round. Our next destination was the tiny settlement of Coulags (about 2 houses!) where Linda dropped Phil with his bike so that he could ride over the mountain pass back to Annat (8 miles away) and be picked up from there. Just as Phil was getting changed a group of 5 mountainbikers pulled up who were going the same way, they asked if Phil wanted to join them and he jumped at the chance! They were from Elgin, but were staying over in Annat for the weekend and doing a few rides over here, they were a great bunch and we chatted for a while, but after a couple of stops to wait for the slower riders Phil decided to leave his new friends to it and go it alone (how fickle!). The downhill was awesome, no surprise it had been featured in MBR a couple of months before! On her way round the main road Linda stopped at the little village of Shieldag and then visited the countryside centre at Torridon, where she saw fields full of deer which were so friendly they even came over to the fence and said hello to the dogs!

The next day we upped sticks and moved to the Isle of Skye. Arriving at the Sligachan caravan site, there was no warden there, and a sign just said pitch up and the warden will see you later. After checking out the manky toilet block and the pitches so hard you wouldn’t get a rock peg in we decided against it and continued up the road to Portree. There we found the Torvaig Campsite which was much nicer, and the welcome from reception was lovely, so we found a nice pitch near the top and set the ‘van up, awning and all! (The pegs went in easy!)

Thurso, and a holiday in Orkney!

West Murkie CL on the northern coast of mainland Britain is another small 5 ‘van site. The pitches are in the garden of a little farmhouse, and it has it’s own beach! After pitching up we were straight down to the beach which has beautiful white sand and a stream running down the middle of it out to sea!

We had a surprise phone call from Roy and June who we met on our first site of the trip in Broadway, it was lovely to hear from them, and how their year of travelling went!
Then we set off to John O Groats, it is much better than Lands end with no theme park present, but the hotel on the headland is looking very run down and derelict. We asked the photographer (who is based there at the famous signpost) what happened to it and he said it has been empty for 9 years but they are hoping to reopen it by 2012. We had a walk out to the end of the harbour and a look around the few shops that were there before going over to Duncansby Head, the headland just East of John O Groats. We parked by the lighthouse and then walked along the 2 mile path that took us to a viewpoint for the impressive Stacks of Duncansby, two rocky turrets which stand proud of the headland, and look like a series of rocks that have been piled on top of each other. On the way there while on the clifftop we spotted a fishing boat busily scooting around checking nets, it was followed by a group of 5 seals that kept popping their heads up to check out what was going on! It was much quieter on the headland by the stacks because most of the tourists didn’t bother with the walk out that far, so we had our picnic sat on a tuft of grass by the stacks before heading back to Tonks. Next stop was up the road to the Castle of Mey, which was the Queen Mothers summer retreat. Entry to the castle was £9.50 each, so we opted for the cheaper £4 option of grounds and garden, (we’re on a budget dontcha know!) we needn’t have paid though as no-one checked our tickets! First we had to drive through the castle courtyard to park under the shade of some trees (for the dogs) and then we had a walk to the front of the castle and its small woodland area. On to the walled garden where we had a nice look around the roses, veggie patches, flower gardens and other plant-like things. Finally we headed down to the animal sanctuary where they were looking after a number of sheep, 2 goats, ducks and chickens, pigs, birds and a couple of chipmunks!
Back to Tonks and we drove found to Dunnet Head, an outcrop of headland that is the most northerly point of the British mainland, the view from the lighthouse was good and we could clearly see the Orkney Isles out to the north, but as we walked up to the viewpoint at the top of the hill the sea mist closed in and everything became very white!


The next day we began our adventure to Orkney! First we went into Thurso to look at the Caithness museum as recommended by Mrs Yeomans, our campsite owner. It was converted from the old Town Hall and was lovely inside, there were some very impressive exhibits and a Dounreay exhibition which explains about the advent of nuclear power in the area, how the power station grew and what is happening now with its decommissioning. The museum also has a café and a shop and is free to get in, highly recommended! We had a bit more time to kill before our ferry so we went for a walk down to the beach next to the campsite, we had a lovely time there and Linda collected a load of little multi coloured shells, so much so that we were a bit later than we wanted to be for the ferry so ended up near the back of the queue! Luckily, they put you into rows before boarding, and our row was first on, so we walked to the top level of the boat and watched the staff squeezing everyone else’s cars in. We were due to sail at 4:30, and it took so long to ram everyone on (including some motorhomes and a caravan who had to reverse on) that we didn’t sail until 5:00! The dogs were fine in the car until near to the landing when one of the deck men stood next to the car and stared at Prince who went bonkers! Phil shouted down to him not to wind up the dog and the bloke wandered off. Off the ferry we set off for Kirkwall and found the posh new leisure centre where we sneaked in and had free showers! After we’d had our tea in a Kirkwall American style diner we headed back out to the Churchill barriers where Linda thought she spotted a possible sleeping spot. It was a nice quiet little track next to a car park with toilets, and it lead down to a nice little beach. We backed Tonks up behind some dunes and set up the bed as it was going dark. Just as we were settling in some Italian folk turned up in a car and 5 of them pitched 2 tents just behind us and chatted for hours, typical! We slept pretty badly because Prince hogged the bed and panted all night, but Smudge was fine in her bed in the front seat! (You spoil that dog!)


Our Italian neighbours left at 7:30am so up we got up and had a walk on the beach. Then the Italian Chapel was our first stop after taking some photos of the Churchill Barriers. The barriers were built in the 2nd World War in order to stop the German U boats getting into the British naval stronghold of Scapa Flow, and as well as the barriers you can still see the block ships which were deliberately sunk in the area as the first attempt to keep the Germans out. Italian prisoners of war were brought in to build the barriers and they stayed in a camp of Nissen huts on the small island of Lamb Holm, morale was pretty low and so to help raise it the British agreed that they could convert 2 of the huts into a chapel, and this is now the only remaining building of the camp after the Orcadians rescued it. The result is an amazing little chapel, which really provokes thoughts of what it must have been like here for the prisoners of war. Shortly after we had finished looking around the first coach party of the day arrived, full of French tourists, the men set off round the side of the chapel to relieve themselves, nice! We then went on to Mainland Orkney and headed for the Gloup on the Eastern side of the island, by Mull Head, there is a short walk to a very impressive collapsed sea cave with viewpoints built at the top so that you can have a good view of the cave below, and all the seabirds nesting in it.
Continuing our journey we stopped off at Kirkwall Airport for a coffee and a cake in their café and saw a Flybe plane arrive. The airport is tiny, and 2 minutes after the plane had let its passengers off their bags were coming off the baggage reclaim, it was the fastest luggage we’ve ever seen! The airport consists of just one main room, and arrivals and departures are nearly in the same place, so it was great to just sit and watch people saying their goodbyes and hello’s! We continued on to the Highland Park Distillery where Phil bought a bottle of 12yr old with a free minature of the 18yr old (voted the best spirit in the world, yippee!). On the way round to Stromness we stopped off at the port at Houton to see if we could watch some boats as we had our lunch, no joy there though. Once we got to Stromness we saw the huge Northlink ferry coming in to dock, and watched as it opened up it’s bow to reveal its ramp where all the cars drove off. We got chatting to some blokes who had come off the ferry, and one said they had hired a sailing boat for the week and they were going diving every day to see the sunken German warships in Scapa Flow, it sounded very cool, and there was lots of beer going on board. (one of the blokes was so big we thought he wouldn’t have needed any ballast to get down!) Afterwards we went into the Pier art gallery, which was a beautiful old building done up very nicely and had an interesting selection of arty stuff in there, it was free to get in but we only had 20mins before it closed so had to trot round a bit, still worth the visit though.
We continued round the island to Yesnaby which had WW2 batteries on a cliff on the West Mainland with views towards the Old Man of Hoy, while we were there we scoped it out as a possible camping spot as one camper was already parked up in the shelter of a building. Then onto Marwick Head nature reserve with a small beach, no camping spot here! Then back round towards Stromness through Twatt, stopping at the Ring of Brodgar , a 3,000 yr old stone circle which we had a walk round. We scoped out the carpark for a camping spot and found one where other people had backed up from the car park to a spot overlooking Loch Harray – perfect! We were back to our camping spot at about 7.30pm (after tea in Stromness) where we got set up for the night and then sat on our bed in Tonks with the boot open looking at the view over the loch.


Bit better nights sleep, with Prince down by the front seats, but he still took up too much room and did a lot of panting! We got up and set off looking for coffee. First off we found the Earl’s Palace at Bursay, a 16th century ruined palace which is now in the hands of Heritage Scotland and is free to look round. There is a tea shop in the village that doesn’t open until 11am so we carried on down the lane to Brough Head where there is a lighthouse and a Viking settlement on an island connected by a causeway, we started walking and got across to the other side of the causeway just as the tide was coming up over the top, so we hot footed it back to the car. We spotted a couple who had been on the other side and left it a little late, they had to take off their shoes and paddle across bare foot! We went back through Birsay where the village shop was now open so we bought biccies and tea and coffee, and 2 bottles of 9% Orkney porter for later! We drove round West Mainland and called at Broch of Gurness (Historic Scotland) then stopped for lunch in Finstown. On to Kirkwall where we went back to the leisure centre for sneaky free showers! We then drove over the Churchill barriers where we stopped by the Italian Chapel at a wine outlet where we bought a coffee and tried some free wine! We carried on down to South Ronaldsay where we took a narrow B road to the tiny seaside village of Herston, where we sat in someones drive and watched the ferry go out. We could see a nice beach on the other side of Widewall Bay so next we headed there and played ball with Prince and watched some farmers kids practicing ploughing. (apparently the farmers kids have a ploughing competition in the sand every year.) Then it was time to head for the ferry so we joined the queue and waited, slightly less full this time, so not as entertaining watching the loading, and we were soon back on mainland Britain. Happy to be back at the ‘van with it’s (huge) comfy bed, in a strange sort of way our little trip over to Orkney without the ‘van felt like a little holiday, and we were glad to be home!

The next day we moved to a lovely caravan site on the edge of the beach at Durness, on the Western side of the North coast.

Dornoch

Mill Farm CL is a lovely 5 ‘van site, and round the corner from the farmhouse was a little field with 5 hard standing pitches each with their own water and electric, and great views down to the sea. It was a gem of a site and we had the pick of the pitches. Once we'd chosen, pitched and put the awning up we headed into Dornoch. It's a lovely village that feels almost like the Cotswolds in style, we were lucky enough to see the highland show which was taking place today. As the games were half way through there was no-one on the gate so we avoided the £5.50 each to get in! We watched highland dancing, cycling, some big blokes tossing the caber, and then the obstacle race where people from the crowd had to jump a gate, climb a rope, pass through tyres and then run up a near vertical wooden wall drenched in water. It was crazy! Someone had obviously banned the health and safety guy and that was a good thing! After a brief look at the stalls we watched 'tip the bucket' where one person pushed a wheelbarrow with another person in it, who had to pass a metal rod through a small hole underneath a suspended bucket of water, miss and you got wet… strange, but very funny!

Phil was up and out at 8 to go and ride the Highland Wildcat trails which were 5 miles up the road from where we were staying. The ride is made up of 7km of red trails and 7km of black, and was really good fun, it climbs up from sea level at the village of Golspie up to the monument of the first Duke of Sutherland “The Wee Mannie” at 400m. The climb to the top is 7km long, and is claimed to be the longest singletrack climb of the purpose built trail centres, but once you get there you are rewarded with a 7km singletrack descent, claimed to be the longest in Scotland, rocks, jumps, drops and berms keep you entertained and grinning all the way down!
After lunch we went looking at caravans for sale (out of noseyness) as we’ve had it confirmed now that ours is written off, and we need an idea of what we can replace it with. We soon got bored of that and went to Dornoch beach where Prince played Frisbee in the sea while we both paddled out, this meant that Smudge had to follow us into the water, and she seemed to really enjoy it, running backwards and forwards and getting lots of praise!


Phil was up early again to go and ride the trails at Balblair and Carbisdale, these are classed as black and red trails totalling 12 miles if ridden together, the black is mainly riding on huge rock slabs and the trail designers have painted arrows on the rocks to point out which way to go, it was very entertaining to ride and quite different from anything else I’ve ridden so far, the red was shorter and included some nice twisty singletrack with a few drops and jumps thrown in.
First stop after that was the Glenmorangie Distillery where we paid £2.50 each for a tour and a dram, it was our first distillery tour so was quite interesting, and we got to see all the main areas of the factory including the mash tub, the stills, and the warehouse where the barrels are all stored for at least 10 years. While the barrels are in storage they loose 2% every year to evaporation (which they call the Angels share) and this makes the room smell thick with alcohol and stains the roof struts black, the tour guide pointed out that even the silver birch trees outside had turned black as a result! On an average weekday they usually fill 120 barrels a day, so the whisky is obviously in high demand! At the end of the tour we all went into the tasting room where we were given a generous dram of whisky to enjoy before we were led into the shop to try and convince us to buy a bottle!
We then drove out through the village of Tain to Tarbat Ness, a long spit of land that juts right out into the Moray Firth. At the tip is a now disused lighthouse which can be hired out for holidays, and lots of footpaths which lead you out to the rocks that plunge into the sea. It was a bit chilly in the wind so we had a quick trot around the site before hopping back in Tonks and heading to the small village of Portmahomack, we parked by the harbour and went for a walk along the lovely beach, it was quite busy because directly behind it is a static caravan site, and we stopped on the way back to Tonks at The Castle pub, where we sat on a bench out the front and had a pint of ale.


We went up the road the next day to a roadside café that we had seen a lot of since being here, it is next to a garage on the A9 and doesn’t look very inviting but every time we pass it it’s always busy, so we went to see what all the fuss is about! Inside we both ordered an all day breakfast and had a marvellous time stuffing ourselves silly, yum yum! To work off the breakfast we decided to go and park in Embo and walk the 2.5 miles along the beach to Dornoch and then walk back along the disused railway line. We parked at the far end of a huge static holiday park and headed out on the beach.. It started to rain half way along, and the little brolly had to come out to save us a few times, luckily just showers though. At one point we walked into the sea with Smudge following, we had to go deeper to avoid a huge bank of sea weed and she got all flustered and didn’t want to move! Phil had to go and stop her dithering and usher her along before she drowned in the tide! Poor Smudge! At Dornoch we walked across the golf course and past the hotel that Linda had stayed in years before, we then set out on the old railway line where we discovered loads of raspberries which we very industriously picked so that Linda could make some jam. In the evening we got chatting to our new neighbours, Mike and Dot, we sat outside between our ‘vans chatting and drank wine until it was too cold to stay out any longer!

We were both up at 7:00 this morning because we had to go back to Inverness where Linda had a dental appointment. We set the alarm to wake us up, but didn’t need to as the farms cockerels did a very good job of getting us up in time! The drive to Inverness took around an hour, but it was a good job that we left a bit of time as satnav took us to the wrong building, after asking directions we arrived at the very posh Centre for Health Science within the hospital grounds. While Phil took the dogs for an amble, Linda went into the very swish dental surgery where she met a very nice female dentist who told her she needed root canal treatment as the nerve was dying. As the pain is still bearable they agreed that it would be better to wait until we are home and get it sorted there, so lucky for Linda no treatment was needed! Linda then had an appointment at the hairdressers in Dornoch (its all go!). In the afternoon drove out to Golspie where we had a bit of lunch sat on the edge of the beach, then we headed up Ben Braggie, with Phil riding up the Highland Wildcat MTB route he had ridden a few days before and Linda taking the more direct walking route. Phil was at the top (where the monument is) first, and met some walkers who he took a group photo for, Linda was soon to follow so we had a brief break on the top and then it started raining! The walkers broke out their waterproofs and slipped them over their walking boots and hats, meanwhile Linda (in her sandals and t-shirt) got her little brolly out of her bag and popped that up, announcing that she needed to keep her new hairdo dry! They must’ve thought she was mad!

Move day the next day! Mike and Dot came over for a brew and we sat chatting for an hour or so before it was time for them to go fishing and us to hitch up. We waved them bye and set off for Thurso, the drive up on the A9 was very scenic ranging from lovely sea views with the oil rigs visible on the horizon to high moorland which was very barren and deserted. After turning off and driving down some very narrow lanes for a couple of miles we arrived at the very secluded West Murkie CL. The owner, Mrs Yeomans came out to greet us and gave us a choice of pitches which are all basically in different areas of her garden! We chose a spot hidden away down the back with a lovely view to the secluded private beach!