Da 14 - Lochinver and NC500 (part)

It was hammering down when I got up at 6:30 but an hour later it had stopped raining and the ground had dried in the wind.  We took our time getting ready and then made a quick trip to the nearest shop to get fuel in Scourie before going on the coastal route to Lochinver which is a section of the NC500 route.  This was an extremely scenic route along a single track road through mountains and passing numerous lochs with a couple of sandy beaches along the way.  There scenery is more like the Norwegian fjords than Scotland.

There were a lot of motor homes and motor cyclists doing the same thing but they didn't really bother us except at a couple of viewpoints where motor homes hogged all the parking spaces.  

At one stop we were joined by 6 Dutch motorcyclists - 4 men and 2 women).  While the women took photos of the scenery, the men all lined up and had a wee in the view point car park, in full view of myself and Paul!





Some steep hills


Clacktoll Beach

Beautiful gorse on the hills. 



We continued on the route and stopped frequently to take in the amazing views.  As we passed through a village called Clashnessie we spotted a starling going into a post box.  We stopped and watched it. 

The same nestbox made BBC news in 2022



Postbox out of use due to nesting starlings.

Starling nesting in postbox

There were a very few tea rooms on this route but they were either full or closed on Sundays.

We stopped in Lochinver but the only place open was full with a big queue waiting for tables.  We got hot drinks from the Spar shop next door which Paul said was the nicest machine coffee he has had.  So, win/win.  We watched a lot of others combined the car park and went in the cafe, then out again.  

Lochinver and bridge to River Inver

Mural of Nessie on house wall

View across sea from harbour

Lobster pots at harbour


On the way back we stopped at a nearby village called Kylesku.  It has a small harbour and a popular hotel.  We saw lots of Moon Jellyfish in the clear sea.  They looked like little umbrellas. 

Kylesku harbour

Moon jellyfish 



Moon jellyfish 

We went back to our pod and it soon started raining again.  A little lamb was sheltering under a bush just outside the pod.

Lamb sheltering from rain

It turned into a wild and windy evening so we had our meal and stayed in watching TV and the comings and goings of the sheep and geese and their Goslings.

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