This will have to be a quicky. Our days seem to fly past and even now, the bar is opening downstairs and I'm rapidly running out of writing and editing time. So here goes.
Yesterday was moving day, and so is tomorrow, but more of that later. These two-night stints at B&Bs give us a full day between sleeps to do bugger all, or to visit features obscure and quirky which are overlooked by many.
Our one full day in Durness, Tuesday, allowed us to visit the famous Smoo Cave, the only cave in Scotland not used by Bonnie Prince Charlie when hiding from the Redcoats. The cave is inhabited during most days by an obsessed gentleman by the name of Colin Coventry. His obsession is the cave, and any other cave within his bailiwick, and he manages to make a little money on the side by conducting guided tours of the inner section of the Smoo, accessible only with his equipment and knowledge. Four pounds was the tour price, and I snapped it up as it seemed to fit well within my parameters of quirkiness. Mary opted not to risk her neck in climbing down to the rubber dinghy, essential to Colin's operation, in the partial darkness, so stayed in the sunshine. My one minute movie of Colin's tour is below.
Movie
As I emerged from the cave after the tour, the vanguard of a southward travelling seamist lifted over the cliffs from the North Atlantic and that was the end of the sunny day. The landscape was transformed in that most of it was no longer visible. Our host at Bae Seren B&B, Andy, was asked by his three year old son why it was misty. "Because it's Scotland!" was his reply.
Durness to Betty Hill
We'd had a great stay in Durness, but Wednesday was the day to move east. This was the day we deliberately overshot our next stay location (only 1.5 hours away) to travel further east still to visit a couple of other places before returning west.
The first of these was the Castle of Mey, favourite home of the late mother of the present monarch of the UK and other countries, including Australia. The Queen Mum, as she was affectionately known to the public, bought this barely livable ruin for £100 in the 1950s, after she'd become a widow and thus lost residence rights at Buck House. Mary did the tour of the extensively (and presumably expensively) updated ruin while I read my thriller out in the warm car in the carpark, thus saving £10.
Castle of Mey. Photo by Mary
Then it was off for a further short drive to the east to a far more famous location.
Sometimes there's a queue here to get the shot. Not so bad this day.
And then it was off back west to our bolt hole for the next two nights, the Farr Bay Inn, in the village of Betty Hill (Betty, not Benny!). Here, in the bar downstairs, we came across three mature north American females, two of whom were sea kayakers from British Columbia and the other of whom had been a very senior US Navy nurse who'd served in Vietnam and visited Australia on R&R in 1969. We all got along famously, as you'd imagine, and my day was made when I was asked to explain how we kayak fishers in Noosa deal with large tuna we'd hooked up to. Naturally, I had my kayak fishing movies with me.
And so to today. Out came the sun again. This was likely to be the last chance for us to enjoy a remote and sandy Scottish beach as tomorrow we head south to Inverness. There's a hole in the northern part of the rock wall surrounding our B&B, which was built 200 years ago as the residence for a Scottish vicar. The hole offers access to a path which leads through grass covered dunes for about 300m to the edge of north facing Farr Bay. This is where we strolled, mid morning, and found ourselves on a fine sandy beach, very pale yellow coloured, looking onto a beach about 500m wide. Small, just-surfable waves rolled in. The water was clear. No one else was present. A one minute movie resulted, but we spent two hours just hanging out on the beach, as we do at home. Watch out for the baby flounder.
Movie, one minute. Farr Bay.
We've just dined in fine company with fellow travelling guests of Farr Bay Inn: Lydia and Wolfgang, an Austrian couple from Graz, and a Scottish farming couple from just north of the border. We'll no doubt pick up the conversation again at breakfast before we all disperse in various directions. Tomorrow night we plan to be in Inverness.
Farr Bay Inn. Our room has the two windows visible on the first floor in this photo and it also has a sofa, as well as a bed and 200 year old window shutters, on the inside, in lieu of curtains.
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Kev Long
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The technical stuff:
Our main iPad is connecting to the Internet mainly through a cellular connection provided (prepaid, 3gb for three months for £16) by the UK "Three" network. On high ground and in town environments this connection has so far proven quite good but, as in Australia, some places lack good coverage so no or poor connection. There are quite a few WiFi options available too although not always advertised. Just ask if you're unsure if available. All except two of our accommodation reservations include free WiFi which is of course the preferred method of transferring large amounts of data but I have been posting these blogs and their images sometimes using only a cellular connection either from inside our accommodation or on the roadside.
Mary's iPhone is operating using an Australian SIM card (Optus prepaid) which is roaming while in the UK and gives us the ability to make phone calls (not cheap) and send and receive SMS. It also uses WiFi, can connect directly to the Internet through the local cellular system (expensive), and use a Personal Hot Spot provided by the iPad (essentially free as the iPad connection is prepaid).
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