Day 4

After leaving Loch Ness entering the Highlands our next destination was Ullapool a small harbour village on the west coast.

We found there a little nice shop and had Cream Tea, which is something really British.

A cream tea is tea taken with a combination of scones, clotted cream, and jam, which we enjoyed on the street with views over the busy harbour.

This was the point on our trip where we left civilization behind and drove along the cost on a curvy one lane road to Kinlochbervie, where the biggest adventure of the year started for Judit. Our  plan was to enjoy the nature while hiking along the coast in the very north. We picked a route, which was verry highly rated in Lonely Planet. A hike to Sandwood Bay the very north tip of mainland Scotland. We absolved the 6 miles walk over wide open flats passing some of the wildest animals of Scotland incl. some cows, lambs and sheep.

According to Wiki,
because of its isolation, the bay has become distinctly romanticised with several legends accorded to it. One legend tells of a mermaid spotted on one of the two jutting rocks there a hundred years ago. Alexander Gunn, a local farmer, was on the beach, searching for one of his sheep, when his dog made a startling discovery. One man, MacDonald Robertson, often spoke of the time he met Mr Gunn in 1939. This is what he reported: "On 5th January 1900 ... Gunn's Collie suddenly let out a howl and cringed in terror at his feet. On a ledge, above the tide, a figure was reclining on the rock face. At first he thought it was a seal, then he saw the hair was reddish-yellow, the eyes greenish-blue and the body yellowish and about 7ft long. To the day Alexander Gunn died in 1944, his story never changed and he maintained that he had seen a mermaid of ravishing beauty.

We arrived short before sunset and we looked for a sheltered spot for our tent.

In the evening we had nice warm soup stirred with our toothbrush and had a romantic walk along the 1 mile long sandy beach, which was just for us 2 this evening.

Nobody else slept here outside.... Judit was a bit nervous sleeping in a tent in the middle of  the wild nature, hearing the noise of lambs looking for grass around. After a while she was tired enough and fell asleep.

Good night and see you tomorrow….

For more pics see

https://picasaweb.google.com/szaipandras/Scotland