24th June, Friday

After two consecutive days climbing mountains today I was going to the beach.  Just a little matter of a 4 mile walk each way to Sandwood Bay.  It should have been easy as it was along rather than up and down.  Foolishly I decided to wear my spare pair of boots, the light weight Brashers.  I had forgotten that they are so lightweight you can feel every grain of sand underfoot.  I now have an excellent selection of blisters.  My boot situation is getting serious as the ordinary boots are now wholly porous, which is not just a problem coping with the rain but more of a problem walking over the endless Scottish bogs - perhaps I need to cover them with dog skin.

Looking back at Blairmore

Looking south again

 

Looking north, Cape Wrath lighthouse

A nice green beetle

Looking north; ruined shepherd’s hut, Sandwood Loch behind

 

Sandwood Bay.  A Spitfire crashed on the beach and occasionally it is uncovered.

Huge dunes

Am Buachaille stack (the herdsman) to the south of the bay(first climbed in the 1960s). 

A puffin which didn’t make it back to its burrow

No footsteps in the sand

Sandwood Loch

It was a really nice summer’s day.  I wished I had taken a book to read and a bit of a picnic.

 

Crofting villages near Blairmore

When I got back to the Van and had dealt with the blisters I set off to Tarbet, a tiny pretty place which seemed to take an age to get to.  The Shorehouse seafood restaurant was there (a bit of a restaurant at the end of the Universe).  I enquired whether I could eat there in the evening and if it was OK for me to park up overnight as I intended to get the ferry to Handa the next day.  Yes and yes.  So parked up for the third night running.  I had a nice meal at the Shorehouse and had a bit of a thought about good meals I had had so far on this trip.  Notable eating “at home” were the Westray crabs and the Westray “spoots” (razorshells).  Eating out were the Lerwick fish and chip shop (so unassuming it didn’t have a name) (3 times, it was so good!), the Castle of Mey cafe, the cafe at the Tomb of the Otters at the south end of South Ronaldsay.  The langoustine at the Shorehouse was good but not good enough to beat those.  The worst meal is still Saxa Vord.

From the Tarbet car park