A scenic drive and stops today, through low-populated northern coastal areas. Few facilities along the way, so our first stop was a grocery store to lay in a picnic lunch for later. For us, a cheese and red-onion sandwich, some raw carrots and a Kit Kat bar, all to split.
Our first scenery stop was near Portskerra Harbour for a rest break. Although we didn't go down to the harbour, it's a pretty area:
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| An unusual fence, using vertical stone slabs |
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| Nice picnic spot for a few people. Too small and too early for our group though. |
On the road again, some varied NC500 tour terrain:
Colourful heather bloom
It was getting to be time for lunch, so we stopped at Smoo Caves where they had picnic tables and facilities, and a somewhat challenging hike way down into a valley and a cave with a waterfall, a lovely 2 1/2 hour break.
The cave entrance is located at the end of this 600 metres (660 yd) long tidal gorge (Geodha Smoo) which was once part of the cave, now collapsed.
Very fjord-like, draining water from the cave out to sea
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| An overview of the trail down to the cave, and back up |
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| Covered walkway into the falls view. Wet in there. |
A short video of the falls in action:
A Wiki link if you'd like more information about the cave:
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| Nice-sized camper for NC500 touring |
Leaving the caves, we stopped for a short visit to nearby John Lennon Memorial garden. Lennon shared boyhood holidays in the Durness area. A nice little oasis when tour buses aren't visiting...
We reached our hotel in Ullapool about 4:30 today, a nice early stop. A one-night stay at the Caledonian Hotel.
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