Day 115 Badbea to Gairloch

 

 Date: Tuesday 31^st July 2012   Distance: 29 Miles

 

We had breakfast at 8.30 after another night of no stars. It was a sociable breakfast with chatty hosts and a beautiful sunny day. At 10 we left with a 180 metre climb to start with. A cyclist on a recumbent went by with impossibly narrow wheels. Minutes later he came back asking if we were OK, because we were walking. Nice of him but a bit embarrassing!

 

This area reminds me of Switzerland with green covered hills and houses dotted on the hillsides. Distant views of some quite high mountains seen across sea or lochs are lovely and though not so many as yesterday there are still some powerful waterfalls.

 

At last there are a few cafes and shops that are open. We carried on to Aultbae beside Loch Ewe for a lunch of macaroni cheese at the hotel there. We sat watching whelk pickers expertly or ineptly throwing the molluscs into buckets. These are bought by the “whelk man” who in turn sells them to the pubs.

 

The sun has brought out lots of dark brown butterflies with pink spots on the bottom of their wings then dragon flies and 2 lizards. We cycled on past Inverewe Gardens owned by the Scottish National Trust. We were going to visit but it looked extensive and would take out too much time. Instead we stopped at Poolewe for the indoor Market in the village hall, full of home grown, home made things, not forgetting Sid the tortoise whose reptilian charm drew children to pet him. While we sat with a tea the artisan baker offered me the last cheesy beery loaf for free as they were on the point of closing. Kind of him, we took it and put a donation in a charity box (for Cairngorm reindeer) eating it later and deciding that cheese and beer in bread don’t really go together.

 

I managed to buy some butterfly cards that helped us identify the ones we’ve been seeing in the area and we think they belong to the hairstreak species, the pink spots I saw were maybe orange.

 

We arrived in Gairloch after a surprising number of steep ups despite Bob saying it would be an easy day. At the fringe of the village we visited a very small museum (£7 between us) I was intrigued by the flat pack pulpit from the 1800s, perhaps the first flat pack ever. Once rebuilt it would be the centre for 2,000 people, out in the open, offering prayer, gospel and hearty singing twice a year and people would think nothing of walking 25 miles to it, it was such a great occasion.

 

There were some small working models of rural machinery like the mill and the pictish stone with a fish used as the symbol for the area, Wester Ross.

Further on we came to the harbour. The pier has many bill boards claiming ever larger amounts of sightings of whale, dolphins, eagles and puffins from their particular boat, as they vie for tourist trade. One claimed 2,000 sightings of puffins- who was counting?

 

 

 

 

The Gairloch Highland Lodge is actually mapped as being in Castletown. From our bedroom window we had  a fantastic view across Loch Gairloch and out to the mountains beyond. The Old Inn back down towards the village is connected in some way to the hotel and we were given a voucher for 10% off our dinner. The menu had a lot of fish dishes but I chose venison terrine with oat cakes and venison stew with dumplings which was too much for me but very nice nonetheless. Bob played safe with fish and chips.

 

The water in the loch is so clear you could see to the bottom with small fish the colour of goldfish or black.  A seal swam under us and the pier at a touchable distance, snorting and as big as a walrus. Another starless night and the wind howled.