Am still in Ullapool, leaving for Stornaway in the morning. Weather has been OK, drove down to Gairloch yesterday, was going to have a boat trip today but it didn’t work out. Ullapool is food heaven,certainly as far as fish and shellfish are concerned, no excuse for not being fresh here. It was a “new town” built in 1788 for the herring and is a charming place.
Will do a longer blog in a few day….
Today I drove slowly from Scourie to Ullapool. Stunning views but not brilliant weather and not too many stopping possibilities for photos.
The area I drove through is geologically important – along the way in some of the car parking areas are information panels indicating how deep the ice was – a bit like Torres de Paine where the top of the mountains were above the ice sheet.
Kylesku bridge. This was only opened in 1994. Before then you had to catch a ferry, or, if you missed the ferry, detour 100 miles via Lairg. I think this explains why the area north of the bridge does really feel remote.
It was also the place where the XIIth submarine flotilla – midget submarines – trained. Something seems to have happened on 10th April 1943 but I can’t find out what.
This demonstrates the Glencoul and the Moine Thrust Planes…
Both ruins were incorporated into a 9 hole castle, pre WWI by a Sutherland. The Green Fee was 1/- a day.
I am now in the camp site overlooking Loch Broom watching the seals, the CallyMac ferry coming and going and the rain.
So, hopefully, I am up on my homework and have been recommended a place in Ullapool which has wifi so maybe able to “post” all this week.
Tomorrow will do some research as to what to do next – pootle around here or go to Lewis….let’s see.
I have managed to get hold of a Sunday paper, fresh milk and more of my secret supply of Tunnock’s Carmel Wafer Biscuits (“more than 5,000,000 of these biscuits made and sold every week”)
Having spent the night in the car park at Tarbet I was ready and queuing up for the first ferry to Handa.
Handa was evacuated in 1847 due to the potato famine. It is now owned by a botanist doctor and is “run” by the Scottish Wildlife Trust. On the west of the island there are sandstone stacks with the usual ornithological occupants, including puffins. I still haven’t seen them with sand eels in their beaks – they only bring them in when they have young. I saw a razorbill, near to the puffins bring in some sand eels but the puffins weren’t doing much. So in the Eye-Spy book of things to do I still haven’t been able to tick the puffin/sand eel box, nor the otter box. Nor, since the dolphins at the Black Isle, have I seen any porpoises, dolphins, wales, etc, barring seals.
I did see a couple of red grouse and an eider duck with ducklings. The couple in front of me saw a lizard which I was very surprised about,but, yes, they are about.
When I got back to Tarbet from Handa I went to the Shorehouse where I had hot smoked salmon for lunch and then drove to the camp site in Scourie.
Here I was able to get my electronics fully recharged and get washed, did a wash and, very lazily, had supper at the cafe (and bar) attached to the camp site – it was doing a very good trade- the rest of the village was closed – until Monday. I also heard a cuckoo.
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 north, Cape Wrath lighthouse
Sandwood Bay. A Spitfire crashed on the beach and occasionally it is uncovered.
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
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.
I woke up this morning to the call of a cuckoo which was odd as there weren’t any trees in view. He was sat on a fence post on the other side of the road. So that was a first for me. Another first was climbing a Munro on my own. Ben Hope is the most northerly Munro. So two firsts and a most northerly. It is 920m. It is a tough, steep climb up and a tough steep climb down. Supposedly good views from the top….
Ben Hope. The road doesn’t seem to have a number…
After the exursions of Ben Hope I then had to drive around Loch Eribol again and through Durness to Kinlochbervie, the first harbour on the west coast south of Cape Wrath. This is an important fishing port, they hold daily fish auctions here. I was told they were about to start the auction ad it seemed the public was allowed to go in and see. There were a few tourists wandering around but no obvious evidence of the auction.
On from Kinlochbervie to Blairmore where there is a John Muir Trust car park which didn’t discourage overnight parking. So I was fixed up for the night.
The John Muir Trust is a sort of mini very early National Trust. Set up in 1983 it is dedicated to protect wild land for nature and people. It owns land in Sandwood Bay, Ben Nevis, Shiehallion, Knoydart, some of Skye and a few other Scottish places. I was all set for Sandwood Bay the following day.
