It was later than I'd hoped when we finally set off after dinner, but it did mean the roads were relatively quiet once we were north of Tain, heading for a favourite spot at Latheronwheel. We weren't far from our destination when David exclaimed, "I've forgotten the blinds!" Oops. I was not perturbed by this, we have plenty of things in Ellie that I thought we could use to overcome the main issues of daylight and privacy, so we continued.
We arrived to find a motorhome and a couple of vans already parked, one of which was across the front of the harbour. We parked up and started to figure out how to best use the lightweight bath towel, the toilet cabinet cushion and table to best effect as window blinds, during which time the van at the front moved and parked next to us. I wasn't sure if we had somehow caused offence. Anyway, we were soon settled for the night as it was late and we were tired.
We had a peaceful night, although David never sleeps well for the first night or two, but we were in no rush and had a relaxed breakfast. The van next door started up early and we thought they were off, but then discovered they had simply moved back to their original spot. How odd. A small council van arrived, we thought it strange on a Sunday, but the chap got out and did a litter pick (not that there was much) and had a chat with the occupants of the van, obviously agreeing to take their rubbish for them. They turned out to be Spanish, and they had moved their van to use the wall for putting their stove on to cook breakfast. Must be a tricky set up in miserable weather.
We went for a little stroll along the John o' Groats Trail, just out of curiosity, heading north this time having headed south last time. I'd like to do more of it, in time. As usual, we left a donation in the box, we didn't see anyone else do the same. Then we packed up and set off towards Dunnet Head as I'd never been there. It's a busy place, but there was plenty of parking and an ice cream van when we arrived, sadly he left before we'd had lunch, so I didn't get an ice cream. The motorhome spaces were full when we arrived, so we'd parked in the next space.
We went for a little walk, there were rather a lot of people so we didn't hang around. There is a trig point, not many people seemed to know this, so we went for a short walk to visit it while no one else was there, then went back to Ellie. We popped the roof to have lunch, but had no intention of stopping as it was too early and too busy. We planned to head to another favourite spot for the night.
Heading to the bridge
Settling down for the night
We left after lunch and continued our drive heading roughly west, enjoying the views. There wasn't a lot of traffic, some of it was slow. We eventually turned off the main road and headed south for a bit before parking up for the night. When we arrived, there was a van already there, but they had parked neatly and there was plenty of room to park next to them. As we were setting up the van, David went to put light the gas for the fridge, only to find it wouldn't. A little investigation (handy being married to a techy person) it transpired there was no gas to either the fridge or hob, although there was plenty of gas in the cylinder. This is the second regulator to have failed when we've been away. Luckily, having learnt that lesson last time, we had a small camping burner and cylinder with us and were able to conjure up curry and rice for dinner. Whilst eating dinner we rustled up a plan for the next day to backtrack a little to collect a new regulator, then carry on with our adventures.
Ta da!
We had a good night, but didn't get off to an early start, unlike our neighbours who were away by 8am. On our way to Wick, we stopped off at Halladale Inn and Campsite to empty all of our waste for a small fee, being the responsible campervanners that we are. We then collected the replacement regulator and visited Tesco. They were having a bad day, all their refrigerators had failed and they'd had to destroy the vast majority of fresh dairy and meat products. We again found ourselves improvising, for dinner this time. Then we headed to Noss Head, which is so out of the way we had expected it to be quiet.
It was not.
We took a walk to the castle, Castle Sinclair Birnigoe, which is quite interesting and has a lot of information, I may have grumbled a significant amount. We then returned to Ellie and left, pausing briefly to collect an entire toilet roll that we'd seen by the side of the road that had incensed me, not a difficult thing to dispose of responsibly.
A casual drive saw us following the coast again for a while before heading inland, south along Strath Naver to another favourite overnight spot. On the journey there, I was becoming increasing concerned by the number of signs at parking places stating 'no unauthorised vehicles' and similar statements, obviously reserving the parking for fishermen. As we approached our planned stop, we could see a vehicle parked at what appeared to be our spot, but as we got closer we could see it was actually just off a passing space (not a great place to stop, don't do it) and our preferred spot was empty. We were aware of the car all evening, never really worked out what they were doing. During the evening we were also aware of what looked like head torches approaching from the other direction, but they seemed to be making very slow progress and we went to bed without seeing their final destination, possibly meeting up with the chap in the car.
Dinner was had and as we had a good signal, we watched a little television before settling down for a peaceful night.
Dolmio pasta, chicken, Philadelphia cheese and mushrooms
The obligatory Jamaican Ginger cake and Birds Instant custard
The next day dawned and the car had been parked overnight, the occupant didn't look as if he'd had a good sleep as he got out, stretched and mooched about before leaving. We concluded the headtorches we'd seen the night before had not been connected to the chap in the car and were probably fisherman in boats on a small loch.
We had breakfast and decided to head for a walk at Rosal, a clearance village with some ancient history, not far from where we had spent the night. On arrival, there was a couple in a car loitering at the entrance to the forestry track, clearly a little unsure as to whether they could continue. As we confidently set off along the track to the car park, they followed us down. The car park is quite a way down the track and looked a little sad and forlorn when we arrived, minus an information promised in the WalkHighland details of this walk, but we were confident we were correct, which we informed the other walkers and they believed us.
A short while later, having set off on foot along said forestry track, we found an obviously much newer car park, with a new information board, and having been passed by a car as they left, I would say only known about by the locals. Thanks WH.
Anyway, we found the settlement and entered the enclosure to explore the remaining rock piles, the many sites of the clearance village, bronze age and souterrain. A really interesting place, had the promised information boards been in evidence. Also, no clear paths as it was so overgrown, but there were little posts so we could make our own way around the site.
Having spent a good while wandering around, getting wet feet, we left the enclosure and followed a little path through the trees to return to the old car park. We met a couple coming the other way who had obviously turned off the main track by the gate, rather than along the track, but no matter, we reassured them they didn't have far to go. On returning to Ellie, we decided to spend the night at Falls of Shin. We have stayed there before, but last time the cafe and facilities were open. We arrived to find these are sadly no more, although plenty of people still stop by to walk the dog or for children to play at the play park, some may also have ventured to see the salmon leap. The motorhome facilities are still there in full working order for a small fee, and we used them.
Many people came and went during the afternoon and early evening, including many vans and motorhomes, but only one other van was clearly going to settle down for the night along with us. We went for a walk before dinner, pleased to find there was just enough breeze to keep the midges away until morning, but even then, they were not a big issue.
We woke in the morning to find our neighbours still there, but they were ready to leave before us. We had a good journey home.
No comments:
Post a Comment