Tuesday 18 June - Sandwood to Laxton Bridge

In the morning, we set off over the beach to the far end and over the dunes to head away from the sea.  Here we became separated again.  Andy followed some tracks and John and I took the easier route, waiting at the other end for him to pass us.  But he went by on a lower path and we missed him.  After casting about the dunes for any sighting, John said a cyclist had told him Andy was ahead thinking that we were ahead of him.  So all we could do was follow.

There's a good path out of Sandwood; a hard track which seems to have actually been made into a proper tamped-down path.  It wound round a string of little lochs (lochans - I got told off for calling them tarns!) one of which had a group of Highland cattle resting nearby, which were too photogenic to pass by.  On the left, there was a series of great blue hills rolling into the distance, impossible to photograph the way the eye can see it.


It was a long path but there were walkers coming the other way - heading to the beach no doubt - and soon enough I was astonished to see traffic ahead, and then the white buildings of a little village (Blairmore).  It was a tiny place but the first village since Durness.  And there Team Alfie regrouped and had a cuppa before heading down the road towards Kinlochbervie, just as the rain set in.

 We had a good lunch at the Kinlochbervie Hotel and this was the first time I'd got a phone signal too - a chance to wish a friend happy birthday.

Out of Kinlochbervie

There's a Spar down the hill, so we restocked before heading back uphill and following the road high above the great sea-loch with its long lines of buoys where mussels are farmed by being grown on ropes.  The rain had stopped and soon the sun came out.  It wasn't to last; the wind picked up and then the rain set in again, but it was good while it lasted.  But the road walking was getting tiring and I was getting footsore - and so was Alfie.

Alfie drinks!  (Rare occasion)

Some of the views along the road; the sea-loch (left) the mountains, and red deer (below).

Stags in velvet

At Laxton Bridge, just past a new road-building scheme we found a lovely place to camp, by the river, under silver birches.  It had dried up again and was a lovely evening, but this meant the midges had come out to join us!