Rhiconich to Thurso

Good night sleep, another cooked breakfast and on the road again across the north of Scotland to Thurso.  We’d heard there were some beautiful beaches along the north coast and the rumours weren’t wrong.  We’d only driven a few kilometres and came upon Rispond Beach at Durness.  A long wide sandy beach which wouldn’t look out of place in Queensland.  Walked one end to the other, there is no surf and the water was a bit chilly but the thongs were on and we paddled along through the water.

Only just left there and came on to Smoo Cave.  This is a cave at the end of a gorge which goes out to the North Atlantic Ocean.  Walk down a couple of hundred steps and wandered into the cave, they had guided tour deep into the cave but the first step was down a ladder and on to a boat to get to the walking ledge, all the time dressed in hard hats and life jackets.  We decided it looked all too complicated…..  Instead we climbed back up the other side and went to the cliff edge overlooking the ocean, a little windy but not cold at all.

Drive a little further to Ceannabeinne Beach.  There was a zip line in action, it looked a bit dangerous so I wouldn’t let Pam have a go.  There were several people on the beach, while we were there a number of them went in for a swim.  We walked down and walked to the end and on the way back Pam talked me into having a swim.  Back up to the car to change.  Pam wanted a swim too but gallantly volunteered to watch our valuables on the beach.  It was cold, very cold (10 degrees), but so refreshing once I’d moved the iceberg to one side and avoided the polar bears.  Dried, changed then back on the road.

Drove through a town, Bettyhill, another sensational beach before we got to Tongue for lunch.  By this time we really had to move along, drove through some desolate country, lots of peat, rocks, lochs and very little else.  It must be so hard living in these areas, such a harsh existence.

We had a bit of time spare so we drove through Thurso to Dunnet Head, the most northerly point of mainland UK.  We’d had a magnificent warm (21 degrees) sunny day but by the time we got 4 kilometres from the lighthouse, we noticed a wall of fog in front of us with wind whipping it east to west right where we were going.  By the time we’d travelled the 4 kilometres to the lighthouse the temperature had dropped 6 degrees and the wind was blowing a gale.  We had to get out and take a photo.  Got back in the car quickly after touching the most northerly point, had a quick trip to Scrabster (just a ferry port and nothing else), did some grocery shopping and settled into our new home for two nights.

The route we are following

Peat harvesting

More traffic problems today

 

Rispond Beach

The church ruin on the point at Durness, incidentally one of John Lennons Aunts is buried here

Cold water but we're tough!!!

Huge kelp in these areas

The golf club/course - don't mind the water hazard

Smoo Gorge

The cave at the end of the gorge

Walking in without fear

Looking out towards the ocean

Interpid tourists on their way back from the tour

Still no fear

Ceannabeinne Beach

You can see the zipline person in the middle of the photo going from cliff to cliff.

Day at the beach

Western end of the beach

Mr Incredible

Mr Incredibly Cold

Just another gorgeous site along the road

Dunnet Head Lighthouse

At the top end of the UK

Our new B&B