Around Scotland: September 2015

Wednesday, 30 September 2015

KYLE OF DURNESS

we spent most of the day exploring sandwood bay, but our principal plan was to cross to cape wrath and spend a night in kervaig bothy. this didnt happen unfortunately because when we arrived to 'cape wrath ferry' we found out that 1.tide was out, so water too low to cross, 2.the ferry guy didnt answer the phone nor texted back. so we had to give up on the cape wrath plan, sadly, but of course we had lots to do instead :)

wiekszosc dnia spedzilysmy w sandwood bay, ale nasz plan zakladal ze jeszcz tego dnia przeniesiemy sie do cape wrath i spedzimy noc w domku przy zatoce kervaig. nie udalo sie, niestety, gdyz kiedy dotarlysmy do przystani lodki plywajacej miedzy durness a cape wrath okazalo sie ze 1.jest odplyw i woda zbyt niska na przeprawe 2.gosciu od lodki nie odbieral telefonu i nie odpisywal na smsy. musialysmy wiec zrezygnowac z odwiedzin cape wrath (nastepnym razem!) ale nie, nie nie, oczywiscie ze sie nie nudzilysmy, i tak mialysmy wiele pomyslow i planow zapasowych na reszte dnia :)

driving to durness, chased by rain

jedziemy do durness, goni nas deszcz!

kyle of durness

look how windy it was! / zobaczcie jak wialo!

Monday, 28 September 2015

SANDWOOD BAY

after a very quiet night spent in scourie we drove further north, to sandwood bay

i have to mention that the night was fantastic - only missing one element (northern lights) - i was woken up at night by a strong beam of light. i thought that the guys from nearby tent must have gone to the car for some reason and switch headlights on straight into our tent's direction. but it lasted sometime and i couldnt hear any noise whatsoever so i investigated :) i poked out my head from the tent and couldnt believe what i saw. full moon shining in full strength, the light was so strong that i could see proper shadows of tent's poles and wouldnt have any trouble to go for a walk to the beach. amazing. and bea slept right thru it :)

anyway, it was just a shortish drive to rhiconich and then further to blairmore (1hr) where the path to sandwood bay starts.

there is a car park & toilets, hard to miss.

as the day was extremely windy we wanted to make tea and take it with us, but there was no way to light the stove in that wind - then, as there wasnt anybody else around we decided that toilets are nice and fresh and we can hide there and boil water for tea. yeah!

walking to sandwood bay from this car park takes about 1.5-2 hrs (each way)

luckily we walked with the wind (one way...) and it rained only for few minutes so the walk was pleasurable thou longish, via featureless moorland with some 3 or 4 lochans. there is only one path in the area so no need to have a map, you cant get lost.

as soon as we approached sandwood bay, all changed.

dramatic coastline, lovely dunes, beautiful sun-lightened beach and a nice sea-stack. what a perfect set :) oh, and a crowd of people - crowd of 4, including us. pretty manageable :)

po spokojnej nocy spedzonej w scourie wsiadlysmy w fabke i ruszylysmy do sandwood bay

musze wspomniec ze noc byla fantastyczna, jedyne czego brakowalo do szczescia to zorza polarna, no ale trudno.

obudzilam sie w nocy przez silne swiatlo skierowane na nasz namiot. silne, biale swiatlo. pomyslalam ze moze para z namiotu obok postanowila poszukac czegos w samochodzie i akurat ich lampy swieca prosto w nasz namiot. wiec czekam i nasluchuje, ale nic. wiec wysciubiam glowe z namiotu a tam wspaniala pelnia ksiezyca. ogromna biala tarcza swiecaca prosto w nasz zaspany namiocik. swiatlo bylo tak silne, ze badyle od namiotu rzucaly porzadny 'sloneczny' cien, bylo tak jasno ze spokojnie moglabym isc na spacer na plaze.. wow.. a bea wszystko to przespala... :)

ze scourie szybko dojechalysmy do rhiconich a potem do sandwood bay, w sumie okolo godzina jazdy do brairmore, gdzie zaczyna sie sciezka do sandwood bay.

jest parking i toaleta wiec nie mozna przegapic.

bylo tam za to niesamowicie wietrznie, a my chcialysmy zrobic herbate w termos na droge, ale nie bylo szans by zapalic gaz, nie mowiac juz o ugotowaniu wody.. ale skoro nie bylo tam nikogo poza nami, a toaleta byla sliczna i swieza, i duza.. woda zagotowala sie szybciutko :)

spacer do sandwood bay zajmuje okolo 1.5-2 godz (w jedna strone), na szczescie na poczatek szlysmy z wiatrem, a deszcz padal tylko przez chwile. trasa dlugawa i nieco nudna, moze poza mijanymi jeziorkami, poza tym bezkresne bagno. w okolicy jest tylko jedna sciezka wiec nie ma szans sie zgubic.

kiedy w koncu zblizylysmy sie do sandwood bay wszystko sie zmienilo!

piekna linia brzegowa, wydmy, rozjasniowy sloncem piaseczek i oczywiscie ostaniec skalny w morzu. doskonaly zestaw.

gdyby nie te tlumy... tlumy az 4 ludzi (wliczajac nas!) niezle!