Day 114 Ullapool to Badbea

 

 Date: Monday 30^th July 2012   Distance: 31.44 Miles

 

We slept fairly well on the high soft bed. Breakfast was served upstairs and we ate with 3 others of which the 2 oldest never spoke leaving all conversation to the younger German lady who was persistent in her questions of which we couldn’t answer, not being local. It was a lovely breakfast of porridge then a full Scottish with eggs from their own chickens and a wonderful lemon curd made with their eggs too.

 

Bob took the old wheel apart to be put in metal recycling from the house but retaining the expensive dynamo. We learnt that the house had been built by very talented builder family members. A glass dome let light into the kitchen and there are windows everywhere with views. It was built for their retirement and great- grandchildren photos are wallpaper for the computer. The lady seemed little older than me but she said they all have children young in their family!

 

We left at 10 stopping at Leckmelm Garden a little down the road. There was an honesty box for £3 per person and a sign saying to let them know if you see a red squirrel as they are being reintroduced. It’s a lovely smallish garden with a giant sequoia and several Cyprus with some rhododendrons not yet gone over. No one else in sight was probably why I managed to see a squirrel about to go on a nut feeder. It went back up the tree out of sight but I left a message in the honesty box.

 

As we left the garden for the road our German friends were out of shouting distance in front. Later they noticed us and stopped for a chat but today they were cycling what we had allocated 2 days for- they were riding to Gairloch, nearly 60 miles away. We were worried for them as we were ready for our stop at Badbea.

 

Today was a day of waterfalls and lush green and trees. There were several waterfalls before turning off the main road towards the gorge- National Trust of Scotland. It is unmanned again with honesty boxes and a wobbly suspension bridge for only 6 people at one time crossing the beautiful gorge and fall.

 

Some of the numerous waterfalls were near small hydroelectric plants. There was a splendid fall near the B and B.

We spotted a common butterwort, a carnivorous plant!

 

There was nowhere to stop for tea or loos and we found ourselves the object of several people’s photographs. Near another small waterfall we smelt petrol and heard a motor. We assumed it was powering the mobile phone mast!

 

My nose was in good order for later I smelt disinfectant and as we got down the hill a farmer was dousing his sheep by the road and said as we passed that he approved of our transport.

 

We passed another pub that said it was open all day but in fact opened at 6.30. Then there was a hostel and several B and Bs. Our “ Easter Badbea” was quite a bit further on. There had been a 1,000 foot long climb and 2,000ft over the day. Despite a lot of cloud we were like lobsters. The area here seems to have a lot of brown butterflies we wanted to identify.

 

Lovely people at the B and B are into growing their own produce in the 2 greenhouses hydroponically. I was so impressed with the taste of the dinner they gave us especially the tender young pea pods, that I want to try it for myself. We had salmon from the salmon farm on the loch. The garden backs on to the loch and was a lovely peaceful place if you can bear the midges. They like Bob too much so we didn’t see any sea otter as we didn’t stay long enough.

 

We learnt that Tim Rice of Lloyd Webber fame owns land from Dundonnel and he disapproves of wind farms.