West As Far As We Can

Wow, what a windy night. I thought for sure we would wake up somewhere other than where we went to sleep. But when we opened our blinds, all was good. After taking advantage of the nice hot showers, we headed out on foot to the Smoo Cave. It was uphill for most of the one and a half mile walk, and I kept thinking of those brave souls cycling and walking this route. The cave was amazing. The pictures don't do it justice, and we were so glad we had the chance to see it. Guided walking tours and tours by zodiac were canceled because of the weather, but just the little we saw was well worth the walk. On the way back to the campground, we stopped at a memorial for John Lennon at the town hall. He spent summer vacations with family in the area. It is said that the song In My Life was about this area. Just a short drive from our campground at Sango Sands was the craft village of Balnakeil and Balnakeil Beach. We drove by the village but parking was a challenge so we kept going. The beach was so beautiful and we spent quite a bit of time there. There was a group of young people taking surf lessons and a few people walking their dogs. We saw hoof prints in the sand but no horses while we were there. There were ruins of a stone church and a large graveyard beside where we parked, so Randy explored that while I made lunch. A man parked in front of us in a very unusual bright blue bus. Not as large as buses back home, but way bigger than I would want to travel in on these roads. Randy had a chat with him, and we kept seeing him as we traveled. We decided to head to Kinlochbervie on the west coast and park at their pier for the night. For a nominal fee, you get electricity, trash, waste disposal, and fresh water. Oh, and a water view. We've been told that some of the most challenging roads are on this stretch, and that seemed to be a true statement. Pretty much the whole way was a single-track road, and traffic was a little heavier as it was the weekend. There are so many more campers on the road. Every where we pulled off, we ran into Will in his bright blue bus. We arrived at our stop for the night around 3 and were glad to park. Although we were only on the road for less than 4 hours, it was a very intense day. Randy took a walk to a pub high on the hill, but I was fighting a cold, so I stayed behind and curled up with a book. He found out the fishing boats from here go out for 10 days. They come back long enough to offload their catch and change crews. The crews work 10 days on 10 days off. He also found out there were much fewer boats now, and fishing is not doing well. There were about 6 other campers parked with us and four crazy sheep who kept coming up beside us to check us out. The big blue bus pulled in but left, too many other campers. Since we had both electricity and cell service after dinner onboard, we watched some YouTube. It was another windy rainy night, but we felt very comfortable parked on the wharf.Read more