We were both up a bit before 6am (Deb was awake at 4:30 am- excited, lol). We packed had breakfast and were waiting at the ferry terminal around 6:45am.
Our ferry loads and unloads from the rear, the same as the Kangaroo Island ferry, it isn’t full. Deb had to get out before I parked the car, there was no room on her side to get out. The guy that asked her to get out had a VERY broad Scottish accent, and had to repeat himself before we understood him. ?
The ferry left at very foggy Orkney at about 7:40pm. The cruise over to the mainland was very smooth again, just a small roll as we got half way, and that was the worst of it.
We landed in Gills, and were greeted by fog, well to be honest, we had fog from St Margaret’s Orkney all the way across on the ferry to Gill. It seems mornings in this part of the world are foggy with light rain, but usually clears late morning to sunny breaks. The road we took is part of The North Coast 500 (it starts in Inverness and follows the coast all the way to Strathcarron on the west coast then almost a straight line back to Inverness), a scenic drive through the north of Scotland where there are some spectacular views. Unfortunately the fog hid everything from us until about Tongue. From there we had amazing views on both sides of the car, beautiful bays and beaches on the right and cloud shrouded mountains gushing with water streams and the occasional waterfall. We passed by a small bay where there was a zip line strung across from one headland to another, it looked about 750m or so long. There were a few people getting ready to fly but we didn’t stop to watch. We drove on to Smoo, and the Smoo Cave. It is the largest sea cave in Britain, measuring 40m wide x 15m high and 61m long at the entrance. We walked down and into the cave, it was amazing and huge and had a waterfall inside it! The local caving group were taking people on tours of the deeper, and by the look of it, wetter parts of the cave. They had plenty of takers.
Next we called into Durness and drove down to the beach. The beaches here are some of the best in Britain, and we heard they get some very good surf breaks here as well. But the seas were calm and so no waves.
The road from Gills to Loch Glendhu was mostly a one lane road with frequent passing laybys. It makes it very interesting driving when you add a speed limit of 60mph (and it seems many people want to keep to the speed limit no matter what the road and visibility conditions are), the fog and the ever present livestock (sheep and cattle) and red deer on the road. We had to stop or slow to a crawl quite a few times to get safely passed the animals.
Along most of the north west and west coast highland areas there are many small to large water bodies. From small pot-like ponds to large land locked (lakes) lochs. All fed by the ever present cascades of water from the highlands. They really make the scenery here so special, the high rocky cloud topped mounts with steep grassed slopes with purple heather highlights that flow down to lightly wooded foothills that end on the edges of the lakes. It paints a beautiful picture.
We stopped off to have a look at Ardvreck Castle on the shores of Loch Assynt, built in 1490. It has an interesting past particularly relating to the Marquis of Montrose, one of histories forgotten losers. A very picturesque setting.
We then drove down to the Kylesku Hotel on Loch Glendhu. A more picturesque place to have a meal would be very difficult to find. A sunny afternoon in the Scottish Highlands in a pub overlooking a crystal clear Loch with rugged mountains over the waters. Unfortunately the hotel had a power outage and their menu was very much abbreviated, we both chose the Goats Cheese Salad, it was very tasty, delicious!
We then finished our drive down to Ullapool, with a brief stop at the Larg Elphin markets, we were late getting there and all the good stuff must have been sold earlier in the day ? It was a short drive to Ullapool from there. We checked into our hotel and had a walk around town before having dinner at The Seafood Shack. The food was great, I had a Haddock wrap and Deb had a crab salad. Yum.
After dinner we went for a walk along the waterfront, checked out the ferry terminal we will be at tomorrow morning, watched a ferry depart for points unknown and then walked up to a park opposite our hotel to soak up the views.
Our room has that same view, out over the shoreline, passed the anchored boats of various description and onto the mountains in the distance. And that was our day!
Tomorrow we go to The Isle of Harris.
