Saturday 11 September 2010

UK Day 10 - Lochinvar to Achiltibuie to Durness

Today was our first day in the UK with rain. So sad, because the views would have been much nicer with blue skies and no rain. In some cases, I didn’t even take photos because it was pouring so much. Fortunately, there was a duplication of some of the road from yesterday. There was also much excitement when I spotted the Google Streetview car going off the beaten track. Who knows, I might be on a Google map! I might even be waving :-).
We left The Rose Guest House about 9.30am, headed towards Achiltibuie. What a scary section of road that is. There’s hardly any signs of civilisation out that way, but there was a bit of traffic – mostly tourists, stopping illegally to take photos, just like we were. The weather was really, really windy and overcast and got progressively worse as the day went on. I was in my new jumper and thick jacket and the cap I bought and was still freezing every time I got out to take a photo. The wind ruined quite a few shots because I couldn’t keep the camera still or pointed in the right place. It was incredible! But the views were still fantastic:
IMG_7801 IMG_7812
IMG_7816 IMG_7819
The road was pretty scary, with stone walls on both sides and only a little ‘passing place’ here and there, and the odd road obstruction:
IMG_7820 IMG_7946
But the scenery was worth it:
IMG_7823 IMG_7829
IMG_7834 IMG_7847
IMG_7850 IMG_7868
IMG_7927
And did I say it was cold and windy? I had to hold my cap on, but the view of the Summer Isles was fantastic:
IMG_7952
IMG_7955
IMG_7982
We were Googled near Achiltibuie!:
IMG_8014
And stopped for lunch at the Summer Isles Hotel in Achiltibuie. It was a little disappointing, because they didn’t have scallops, which I’d really been looking forward to. In fact, half the menu was cancelled because they’d been so busy they were out of everything. We ended up having potato and leek soup. It was nice, but not what we’d come for. Such is life!
After leaving here, we headed along a different road back to Ledmore, which we’d passed through yesterday. The weather was getting quite wet, along with the windy, so the photo-opps were not so great:
IMG_8036 IMG_8060
And then the section between Badcall Bay (which name amused me no end) and Durness. It was so cold and wet and windy and miserable. But the photos had to be taken, so I soldiered on. Daniel didn’t much like it either:
IMG_8071 IMG_8081
IMG_8085 IMG_8099
IMG_8107 IMG_8118

IMG_8133
Then it was time to look for somewhere to stay. We tried about half a dozen B&Bs and the hotel, and everything was full. The lovely woman at the hotel rang up a B&B down the road, which had a sign saying it had no vacancies, but that’s because they’re no longer doing the B&B regularly, only to help out during the summer. It was directly above the beach – no road in between or anything. It was fantastic! Lovely big room, and we were the only guests. Joyce and Johnny were really lovely and I sat with them and a couple of their friends and chatted after dinner. Breakfast was only continental, rather than full cooked breakfast, but we didn’t mind. Especially with the views we had!:
IMG_8142 IMG_8145
IMG_8148
The B&B seen from the distance:
IMG_8207