Day 18 - Tummel Bridge to Perth

Friday 17th June

After sausage sandwiches for breakfast we drove to Burrelton the see Lyn's friend Janice. It was, unfortunately, raining again so Button only had a short walk at the picnic area we had visited the previous day. Janice was pleased to see us but her husband, Bob, was away sailing in Greece. He will be sad to have missed seeing Button.
We had a snack lunch on the outskirts of Perth before making our way to see our friend Diana. It was great to see her again and we know that she was delighted to see Button! Lyn and Diana took Button for a walk in the afternoon as the weather had brightened up quite a bit.

Day 17 - Inverness to Tummel Bridge

Thursday 16th June

We left Culloden in slightly better weather and made our way to the Strathspey Railway at Broomhill. We caught our train, headed by an Ivatt 2MT engine with 8 coaches, and traveled alongside the River Spey to Aviemore. We had about 20 minutes at Aviemore station before the return journey. It was pleasant and quite friendly but the coaches were not up to the standard of ours on the Churnet Valley Railway.

Our transport emerges from its own steam

Ivatt 2MT

We had our sandwich lunch in a small pull-off south of Aviemore then continued on our journey south via the A9. We left the A9 and traveled by minor roads to Tummel Bridge, then to Queen's View by Loch Tummel. Rather than park there we found a woodland picnic area (complete with "long drop" loos!) where we were able to give Button her evening walk. 

The woodland walks and picnic area near Queen's View

Overnight camping wasn't allowed so we stopped in a lay-by overlooking Loch Tummel for the night. It was a lovely view enhanced by the occasional breaks in the cloud illuminating the opposite bank of the loch.

The view over Loch Tummel from our pitch

Sunlight above the farm buildings of Lick

We did have a slight problem with midges but kept them out of Morag. We slept well after finishing off the chilli from yesterday.

Day 16 - Brora to Inverness

Wednesday 15^th June

After a good nights sleep I took Button for a morning walk alongside the loch while Lyn prepared breakfast. It had rained a lot overnight and there were no midges around.

We drove along the side of the Loch and through Strath Brora. The views were lovely all the way. We regained the A9 south of Golspie near Loch Fleet. We continued on our route taking a detour away from the busy A9 through Invergordon with its oil rigs and maintenance yards. We stopped for a coffee in a lay-by beside the Cromarty Firth.

Oil rig in Cromarty Firth

By the time we moved away the rain had started again, not heavy but quite persistent. We reached our destination, the camp site near Culloden, at about 12:30. Lyn took Button for a walk in the woods in the rain. This completed our journey round the North Coast 500. We celebrated with a home made chilli sitting in Morag while the rain continued outside!

Day 15 - Dunnet Bay to Brora

Tuesday 14^th June

We had breakfast outside in the sunshine then readied Morag for departure. We continued along the North Coast, avoiding John O'Groats, until we reached Duncansby Head. It was easy to watch the seabirds on the cliffs. Fulmar, Kittiwakes, Guillemots, Puffins and Bonxies were all easy to see either above, or on the walls of the Geo of Sclaites.

Duncansby Stacks

Duncansby Head light

Geo of Sclaites

Fulmars

The proof of the Puffins

We continued our journey stopping at Wick for essentials. Our lunch stop was at “Hill O' Many Stanes”, a field of over 200 small standing stones arranged in rows. 

Hill O' Many Stanes

Lichen covered stane

Later, we parked near the shore in Brora to take Button for a walk on the beach. Although it was still sunny we could see that poor weather was moving in from the east. Rather than finding a wild camp site on the coast we headed inland along the side of Loch Brora and found a lovely spot with a view over the loch. However we had to suffer the midges until the rain came.

Loch Brora

Day 14 - At Dunnet Bay

Monday 13^th June

The traffic noise didn't disturb our sleep too much but we decided we would move to a pitch further from the road and nearer the beach as soon as one became available. It was still very windy but with rather more brightness in the sky. After breakfast we drove to Dunnet Head, the most northerly point in mainland Britain. We watched Fulmars, Kittiwakes and Bonxies and rafts of Guillemots (and maybe Puffins) on the sea.

Dunnet Head light with Orkney on the horizon

We drove from there to St John's Pool, a small bird reserve nearby. The reserve was very impressive indeed. We saw Sandwich and Arctic Terns, Common and Black-headed Gulls, Tufted Duck, Moorhens, Coot and, best of all, a pair of American Wigeon.

Sandwich Terns at St John's Pool

Pair of American Wigeon

Fighting Coots

A visit to a woodland near to the campsite followed. This woodland is managed by a local community group and has sculptures, waymarked footpaths and a log cabin used for schools and community events. Button enjoyed her walk through the wood and during the walk I saw my only damselfly of the trip so far, a Large Red.

Log cabin in Dunnet wood

Owl sculpture in Dunnet wood

Evening view from or beach side pitch

Cheers!

Day 13 - Durness to Dunnet Bay

Sunday 12th June

After a good cooked breakfast (sliced sausage, black pudding and egg) we left Durness for Dunnet Bay. It was a better day, still some cloud but with some sunny intervals. We stopped for a coffee beside Loch Eribol before continuing on to Tongue. Another stop for photos of the Tongue causeway and to take Button for a walk.

Loch Eribol

The causeway at Tongue

We stopped for lunch at the Borgie Forest. We found an interesting little forest walk where the trees had been planted to illustrate the “Tree Ogham”, an ancient alphabet; the letters formed from the initial letters of the trees names in Gaelic. A spiral footpath took us to the centre of the planting and there we met a woman whose grandchildren had helped plant the trees.

Stone explaining the "Tree Ogham" alphabet

Especially for my graddaughter, Luis, the letter L, Rowan!

We drove on via Thurso arriving at Dunnet Bay Caravan Club site at about 4pm. It was cloudy and breezy and the only pitches available were by the main road. We took Button for her evening walk on the beach. She loved it. We had dinner that evening in the Northern Sands Hotel. The food was fine and good value but the service was rather chaotic.

Dounreay Nuclear Power station, now being decommissioned

Lyn and Button on Dunnet Bay beach

Button after chasing the ball umpteen times

Day 12 - Cape Wrath

Saturday 11^th June

After breakfast, Lyn took me down to the ferry for a visit to Cape Wrath. Lyn and Button gave the trip a miss because of the long minibus drive across rough roads to reach the Cape.

A party of eleven took the small ferry across the Kyle of Durness where the minibus met us for the journey. The eleven mile trip took an hour as the road was in very poor condition. The scenery was wild and quite desolate as we crossed the MOD bombing range. Our driver kept us entertained with a running commentary and many bad jokes. Cape Wrath as impressively isolated but one man lives there all season and runs the OZone, a small cafe. I took many photos and ate my sandwiches in the shelter of a wall looking out over the North Atlantic. It was very breezy. The journey back seemed to go quite quickly and we only had to wait for a few minutes for the ferry man to return us to the other side of the Kyle.

On the ferry to Cape Wrath

Our transport across the headland

Cape Wrath light

The OZone

OZone menu - note Drachmas accepted!

Sea stacks and natural arch

Boarding the minibus for the return journey

Kearvaig Bay and the sea stack known as "The Cathedral"

Waiting for the return ferry. Morag can be seen in the car park

Lyn was waiting for me with Button. They had been to a beach at Balnakeil Bay and visited a ruined church there. Button had enjoyed running on the extensive unspoilt sands.