Day 19 (8th July 2022)

 Last night was probably the coldest yet, I could have done with Guy & Morgan to heat up the Alphard. There was a bitter cold wet wind which made making a cup of tea for breakfast almost impossible. I was glad to hit the road, albeit at just gone 7am, to give me a chance to dry out.

I had been advised by the owner of the campsite to ring the ferryman the night before in case of bad weather cancelling the crossing, but it obviously takes far worse weather than this for him to abandon his crossings. I got to Keodale on the bank of the stunningly beautiful River Kyle of Durness ridiculously early, so I was able to make myself a cuppa. I discovered some orange club biscuits Guy had secreted away for me as a surprise and almost burst into tears! But as I was early, I was able to get on the ferry that takes you to the minibus that takes you to stop #38

CAPE WRATH

The weather was truly appalling by the time the minibus bumped us the 11 miles from the west bank of the river to the UK mainland most north-westerly, and probably least visited point. It was hard to get the epic scale of the place unfortunately. There were glimpses of the sea below, with occasional breakthrough of mist and mire to see the bombed-to-smithereens island of Garvie. According to Grenville, our driver & guide, the armed forces hit it with a thousand pound bomb 3 weeks ago.You have to hope no birds were having a rest there at the time. Grenville was good fun actually, having travelled up from about as far as you can get to work here for the summer (Falmouth in Cornwall, the same town we bought the Alphard from as it happens). 

At Cape Wrath there is a little Café (The Ozone) run by father & daughter John and  Carole (and at least one cat) who not only make you feel very welcome but who also make the best homemade soup I've had for ages. They seemed delighted with my Germinal CCXXIV quest, and I duly signed their visitor book mentioning the band and the mug/T.

As luck would have it, just as we were making our way back to Malcolm and his ferry, the weather cleared for a bit. I have never witnessed such dramatically volatile weather in all my life. It literally went from early February to July in 20 minutes. See if you can spot the nesting Skua (according to Grenville!) in the next picture...

We did manage to get to see "The Cathedral Stack" on the way back.

I took a fairly leisurely drive down the A838 or NC500 as everyone is calling it these days. I veered off to the right at Loch Assynt towards Lochinver and onto the tiny roads past Strathan and was just pole-axed at how beautiful this part of the world is. This is an area I will definitely be returning to to spend some quality time in with Guy. My reason for such an apparent detour was because I wanted to get to a part of the coast that looks out across stop #39

 SUMMERISLE (SUMMER ISLES)

On Germinal CCXXIV mug/T the place is Summerisle  but I think this refers to the fictional place where "The Wicker Man" is set. To my shame, I've never watched this film - I know, I can hear your gasps from here - but I wanted to at least try to be completised on this quest. And before you start saying "yes, but", I have looked up where some of the island scenes were filmed, so if you're really good, I might go there too.

I felt like I spent a long long time driving today, but for many miles my speed barely went above 20mph due to the tiny single track lanes that make up the road network in NW Scotland. By the time I found Elphin, my base for the night I was ready for bed already "Alright, Already!" (quote from "More Tales of the City") but food and wine did perk me up enough to get my blog done. Only then did I discover I had not signal or WiFi. Or hot water. Or a shower. Good view though;

Allons-y 

Douglas Germinal CCXXIV Brain over and out