Last nights hotel was one of a chain across the country, and had only been recently built. We had dinner an breakfast there and, as checkout was not until noon, we decided to watch some of the pomp and ceremony of the Coronation (sorry Claire!)
Yesterdays mist and rain had cleared out and it was blue skies and sunshine when we left. The temperature climbed to 22C(72F) as the day progressed. We had little planned for today, and a couple of those that we did have planned couldn’t be found!
For a lot of the time the road followed the north coast of Scotland with views alternating between stark cliffs and sandy beaches. Again, being the lazy person I am, I’ll just dump a load of pictures below.
We passed by Dounreay, which was the site of Scotland’s first nuclear reactor. It is no longer in use and is slowly being decommissioned.
On one particular beach we decided to go for a walk, but after a few hundred yards we were sinking about six inches into the sand. We turned around!!
As luck would have it we “discovered” a craft village along the route (well sort of along the route!). It appears that it was once a busy place, but I suspect COVID closed a number of the stores down. They now seem to be slowly getting back normal. One store in particular caught our attention and we bought some glass work.
Having been used to fields of brown heather and rocks we were surprised to see some vivid green field very occaisionally.
Our guest house for tonight seemed to be beyond the back of beyond when we found it on the map. When I was scouting out accomodation, it was very difficult to find anything in this area. In preparation for an isolated night and no food, we dropped into a store for a couple of pies, crisps (chips), and a desert.
As we got closer to our destination the clouds got lower, and the temperature got rapidly lower, dropping from 22C (72F) to 13C (56F) in about an hour. As we pulled up at the guest house a couple of things happened, it started to pour with rain, and a small stone wall jumped out behind me stopping the car rapidly! Luckily the 5MPH bumpers worked and there is no sign of damage!
Talking of cars, many of you know we own a 1977 MGB. When my son drove up in his hire car I was somewhat dismayed to find it was an MG, albeit an SUV. Since then we have passed dozens of these cars. Today we discovered an electric MG. What is the world coming to??
Getting back on track, we checked into the guest house. As we expected this was the most spartan one to date. It was clean, the room was small and horror of horrors there was no en-suite bathroom. We did have our own private bathroom but it was across the corridor. First world problems I guess. At least there were some white whine glasses for the Gin & Tonic!!
And the view isn’t bad
Tomorrow we start heading south towards Ullapool.