We've got a long haul today, so we start out early. This is our first included breakfast, and it's sumptuous.
Our trip of the day will take us via Corrieshalloch Gorge, Ullapool, Lairg, Tongue, Bettyhill, Thurso, and to our hotel in Dunnet.
Outside, in front of the hotel, there was a tiny white tent. It was a cyclist that had spent the night in this freezing wind and rain in his flimsy tent - I sometimes wonder about madness...
The whole world is full of waterfalls and rainbows!
Ullapool is a ferry port for crossings to the Outer Hebrides. It is also a very charming seaside resort. Houses like this on the harbour front look like holiday homes. All the houses have benches like these overlooking the bay and harbour.
We went into a few shops, because this is not a tourist trap, and we love shops (haha, not really!), and shopped for Lunch. Supper was in a hotel again.
On the road again, and on to Lairg. This was some of the most beautiful scenery, mile upon mile! The dry walls are neatly packed and give a sense of containment to the landscape. Mountains are ever present, as are wind and rain. Someone said to me yesterday: If you don't like the weather, just wait ten minutes. Yes, indeed!! The rain brings rainbows, and we have come to call them the poor man's aurora. We had hoped to see an aurora, but it's not going to happen. For that, however, we have seen more than 30 rainbows.
One cannot get tired of this beauty! It is remote, solitary and rugged.
Another roadside graveyard that enchanted us.
Rosehips, brambles and more rosehips appear on the roadside all over Scotland.
When you look at a mountain slope, these are the colours you'll see: the brownish-yellow is bracken, the burgundy is heather, and the rest is just grasses, green or yellow.
Needless to say, hunger got the better of us, and we had a car boot lunch again, cardboard knives and all. Izzie's wearing the 'new' anorak she bought in a thrift shop in Ullapool for £8! Best buy ever!
There are wind farms on Orkney, two a penny, and sometimes it seems as if solitary wind turbines are privately owned.
And at last we arrive in Lairg. But we must press on to Thurso.
It is so heartwarming to see a traditional vernacular architecture in a landscape. Here it is stone of the area, with high pitched roofs.
When we espied this gigantic wheat silo, we knew why there are so many wheat fields everywhere you look! The Caithness county borders the North Sea, and all of a sudden we encounter huge agricultural activity.
We are nearing Thurso, one of the largest centres of the North. Where the river Thurso flows into the sea stands Thurso Castle.
We turned eastward before reaching that causeway,
We are in shock to see such a prosperous community here in the very North of Scotland. The production of wheat and animal feed, as well as tatties (potatoes), not to talk about cattle and sheep farming is a revelation! Here is Castletown.
We see the cliffs of these northern parts, and then we reach our hotel in Dunnet, the Northern Sands Hotel.
We rest a while before we go for dinner, and then straight to bed, for this was a long day! And tomorrow we must be at the ferry at Gill's Bay at 8.45, so no rest for the wicked!
Izzie bought herself a lovely read and quite snazzy reading glasses in Ullapool, as well as snuggly socks covered in lambs :)) The dining room didn't disappoint at all. This is traditional hotel fare, and SO so good!
I loved our car boot sandwiches in the wind and cold 😆 That Brie was outstanding!
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