A long, long, long, time

We had another lovely breakfast this morning.  Since it was self-service, it was no problem to have an early departure, as we have a ferry to catch.  Our wonderful host had everything ready for us, and even came out to see us off.  I got the suitcases downstairs and we loaded up the family truckster to drive to Stromness.

It was a quick jaunt, and before you know it, we were lined up to wait to board.  When you have ferry travel included in your travel plans, it is important not to miss them.  This usually means we have a bit of time waiting in the car for our turn to board.

Once on board, we quickly headed upstairs to claim some tables to occupy.  There was a large group of boys on some sort of school or team trip.  They all lined up to have their breakfast, and were as chittery as you might think.  While the sound of joyful kids has its own charm, we were glad that they had tables to eat at in another area of the boat.

Rosanna and Pat are both fighting coughs, and Rosanna made use of our table as a makeshift pillow to rest her eyes a bit.  I fought the blog (and the blog won).  Carrie and Walt tried to get some photos, but it was rainy and windy, so that wasn’t much fun.

Once we approached the dock, we started the process of descending to the auto deck to load up.  We drove off the boat, and headed to our long driving day to Ullapool.

Our first stop was Dunnethead lighthouse.  This is the most northern point of the island of Great Britain.  We walked around a bit, and Carrie was excited to capture her first real puffins of the trip, though they were a bit far away.  After a brief walkabout, we headed to our next stop - Castle Mey and gardens.

We hit a bit of fortuitous timing, as right after we bought tickets, the sky looked like it was about to rain.  We were going to visit the gardens first to avoid the rain, but decided we would have lunch in the cafe first.

Just as we sat down to eat, the skies opened and the rain came in sheets.  By the time we finished, it was drying up, and we were able to tour the gardens, then the castle, as well as returning to the car before it started to rain again.

Castle Mey was purchased by the Queen Mother shortly after the death of her husband, the king.  It was in dire shape, and she had it refurbished nicely, and she spent every August and September there for the rest of her life.  Many royals have spent time there, from Lady Diana to Harry and Megan (all right, you royalists, put down your pitchforks, I know that Megan is not “Royal”).  It was a very nice tour, with guides in each room spinning tales about the life of the home.

Once back in our car, we stopped off at John O’Groats.  There were some cool buildings, as well as some shops, and a very grumpy Scotsman.  The area is particularly windy, and when Pat opened her door, the wind caught it, and it bumped the car next to us.  Unfortunately, there was a Scottish man and his wife eating ice cream in their car.  He got out to confront me for denting his car.  I apologized,  (and did tell him that I didn’t hit is car).  He groused and went to the front of the car to take a photo of our license plate.  Carrie and I went over to his side to chat, and, I’m guessing, his wife had calmed him down.  After Carrie offered to pay for any damage, he told us “don’t you mind at all, there’s no lasting damage”.  Quite a change from the initial confrontation.

Next up was another lighthouse, Duncansby lighthouse.  There was also supposed to be a sea stack formation nearby, but we discovered that it would take quite a hike in the rain and marsh to get it, so we drove on.

We looked at the time, and realized that we were getting a bit tight on time, as we still had 3 hours to drive, and an 8:00 dinner reservation (well, 20:00 over here).  So, we resolved to drive straight through, and only stop briefly for photos from the car.  That edict was not followed, as I’m sure you can imagine.

We drove through Wick, home of John, and met back up with the road we came from Inverness on.  We continued down that coastal road, until our cut-off came up.  We’ve driven on some narrow roads in Scotland.  When they take the time to actually put a sign up saying “One Track Road”, you KNOW it is going to be narrow.  There are pull-outs regularly to allow for passing.  The speed limit on this road is 60 mph.  I don’t think I ever got close to 50.  We saw some amazing countryside that Carrie and I have never seen before.  There were farms, a few small towns, and a lovely Loch.  What there weren’t, was open convenience stores.  Carrie was in the mood for a cold beverage, and to her disappointment, today is Sunday, and it is after 4pm, which means, in these small towns, nothing is open.  So, she had to wait until our destination.

We saw some truly amazing landscapes, and stopped regularly for photos.  Eventually, we made it to Ullapool, and our hotel for the night.  It overlooked the firth, and was beautiful.  We got our luggage upstairs, and freshened up a bit before dinner.  Dinner was good, though a little spicy for Rosanna.  We finished the day upstairs, thankful for the blackout curtains in our room.  It was another beautiful day.