Scenic Overload- Day 3 NC500

24 October 2019

We were sad to leave our little pod overlooking the sea this morning. It certainly rates as one of our favourite Airbnb’s of our trip. So cosy and warm …….and that view!!!

Our eyes suffered from sensory overload today. It’s been hard to pick the most stunning view as there was something wonderful around every corner. And there were lots and lots of corners. Suffice to say the scenery was stunningly stunning. Mountains , lochs, mountains , lochs, mountains, lochs and the occasional beach.

See what I mean!!

Oh and did I mention waterfalls?

We had four seasons in one day and sometimes they all happened at the same time. The sky was blue one minute, and the next minute a squall would come through and we’d sprint back to the car. Two minutes later, we were looking for our sunglasses.

The one constant, was a cold wind that kept us reaching for our beanies and scarves every time we got out of the car.

I’ve never seen so many rainbows in one day. I’m sure we were being followed by them at one stage. No pot of gold though.

Smoo Cave at Durness, a large combined sea and freshwater cave, was on our must see list for today. The large chamber was formed by the action of the sea, and the inner chamber from the freshwater running through the cave. The waterfall within reminded me of Natural Arch with the stream from above pounding down through a hole in the roof of the cave.

Covered walkway leading to second chamber

Just up the road was “Cocoa Mountain”, the most amazing chocolate shop in the world! After getting caught in a downpour when returning from the cave, a hot chocolate was very much appreciated. And a few little chocolates didn’t go astray either.

A lot of today’s drive was spent on what was called “Single track roads”. The roads were only wide enough for one car but there were passing bays fairly evenly spaced along the way. If you met a car coming the other way, one of you would stop in the bay until the other passed. There was lots of “thank you” waving between drivers.

There’s a lot of sheep in Scotland and we got to see our fair share today. Mostly on the roads. They wander wherever they please, without a care in the world. Cars don’t seem to bother them in the slightest.

We called into a village called Lochinver because we had heard it had a great pie shop. They even have a mail out system to anywhere in the UK. ( I should have asked if they’ll send to Australia!). It was lunch time and we had almost recovered from our earlier chocolate overload, so in we went.

Lochinver itself was a pretty village with a stream emptying into the ocean.

After filling up on pies, we made a quick detour to the Highlands Pottery Shop. There was some nice stuff there but we enjoyed the ceramic stuff outside much more than the expensive stuff inside. The ceramic armchair wouldn’t fit in our bags, so we had to leave it there. Grahame was keen for the car!