North coast 500!
We travelled from Kilmarnock, where we collected our VW caddy from (#rockinvans) All the way around the north coast visiting Inverness, Golspie, Brora Helmsdale, lybster then wick where we stayed for the first night at Noss head where there was an isolated camping/free car park out by sinclair castle! Beautiful when we woke up to the sunrise! We then went on to john o groats, dunnet, Thurso and strathy point where we were very lucky to spot dolphins, seals and possibly an orca all feeding. We then moved onto bettyhill, tongue and headed towards Durness when we found a perfect spot to set up for the night just outside Durness (possibly Heilam) where there was an old school house at the top of the road. We met a lovely couple from Grantown on spey with their we dog who were hoping for the same as us! some northern lights at night but all we got was a beautiful sunset and stary cool skies! Third day we went into Durness to the Smoo caves! and got a cup of cocoa mountain hot chocolate and mocha which was amazing being October holidays. We followed the road down to Scourie, unapool and then we went to lochinver to view some waterfalls Kirk Kaig, which were a longer walk than expected but worth it all! Especially as when we came up we were met by a stag standing at the top of the hill as proud as could be! We also met a lovely family with a dog not too keen on getting back in the car, who were staying in a log cabin not to far away. They gave us some handy tips of places to see including our next adventure to the bone caves in Inchnadamph. These weren't as far to walk (or maybe it was because it was getting darker so we walked faster) and were pretty amazing especially if you had the guts to crawl down the tiny gaps to get inside! Again we were met by a good handful of Stags standing their ground to others however weren't to fussed about us being so close. We then travelled to Ullapool for our chippy mmmm! We travelled through the dark evening towards Laide (country roads were full of deer and stag eyes. Driving carefully was a must).
Tuesday we woke up to another stunning view! blue skies all week. We went down to Gairloch and visited the Victoria falls. We then decided that we would have time to go to Skye, so we went to achnasheen down to picturess Plockton before going down the weaving roads to Kyle of Lochalsh to go over the skye bridge.
Stops at Portree and up to Trumpan by night seeing 'dinosaur' fossils, building stone towers, castle ruins, The famous Storr, cliff faces to dark skies at Trumpan where we got an amazing sunset with the highland coos! We stayed the night by the road side again at Dunvegan.
The following day we travelled back to Portree (missed the fairy falls area coouldn't find it without any signal :( ) and headed for Eilean Donan Castle. Last day for big travels we squeezed lots in going to loch ness, fort william, Glencoe then finishing by the road side at our favorite places Luss.
The next day was our last and the wettest day we had even if just a few showers. We travelled back down to Kilmarnock then home to Sunny Girvan to enjoy a welcoming shower and home bed! Amazing journey will be back to see more of places we missed, maybe some hill climbing and would recommend anyone to do this, especially if the weather was as good as we got! NC500!