The winds had picked up over night and there was a bit of rain as we were packing up to go in the morning. Luckily with the strong winds it soon blew over. The scenery we saw yesterday continued as we drove to Durness along the coast road, stopping for several picture opportunities, lunch and a dog walk along Traigh Allt Chailgeag Beach, which was picture postcard stunning, helped by the blue skies.
This part of the journey also had the first long stretches of single track road that we had come across. It was a slow journey with all the campers on the road, not that that bothers us, more time to look at the scenery. Must be annoying if you live here though.
At Durness we stopped at Smoo Cave where you can view the first two caves for free. There is a tour available, weather permitting to go into the third cave. There are a couple of ways down to the cave all on good footpaths, although it is harder work coming back up!
We then walked through Durness, another great beach and a campsite should you need one to Balnakeil Craft Village which was originally built by the military as an early warning station in the 1950’s but decommissioned in the 1960’s and made into a Craft village. It is also home to the famous Cocoa Mountain chocolate producers so it would have been rude not to pass through without sampling a hot chocolate.
Our overnight spot was just past the craft village, next to another burial yard at Balnakeil beach at the top of Faraid Head. There is a bit of a theme developing here! This was our busiest overnight spot to date. We shared the lower car park with two other vans and a bit further on in the Golf Club car park there are six larger motorhomes. Our evening walk was interesting, we encountered cows on the beach, is no where safe!
Miles driven – 53
Miles walked – 8.4
Weather – a bit of everything with strong evening winds
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