CAPE WRATH!!

If returning to Kirkwall youth hostel was like visiting an old friend, returning to Durness was like being reunited with your best friend from school.  Liz and I took refuge there about thirty years ago in terrible weather,  while we were driving around the north in our little yellow VW Polo.   Like the school friend, it hadn't changed in character despite being a bit worse for wear.  Water is still heated by a coal-fired Aga, but the whole set-up works very well.  Before I left the warden asked if I had done my chores (she was joking).

A few people in the hostel asked where I was heading, and were a bit unimpressed when I said Scourie.  "Oh, that's not far". But they didn't realise I was taking a detour to ... (cue dramatic music) ... CAPE WRATH!! 

The top left corner of Scotland, CAPE WRATH!! is only reachable via a ferry and ten miles of rough track ... THROUGH A MILITARY FIRING RANGE !!  The sort of place that Top Gear would go to if it was about cycling.

A dozen of us were waiting for the first ferry at 9:30.  Ten minutes to cross and everyone else got on the minibus.  I hid my panniers behind an abandoned tractor and started up the very steep track, which once had some tarmac on it, and varied from poor to terrible.  The first mile had nice views over the sandy sea loch, with a lone seal doing whatever seals do on the sand.

The rest was mainly a matter of spotting rideable bits of road and trying to have some influence over steering the bike.  It was hilly but my legs were fine: my hands hurt from gripping the brakes and being jarred by potholes. It made Surrey roads look good.  If you dared to look up, the views were nothing to write home about: undulating grassy, peat land with no view of the sea after the first mile.

CAPE WRATH!! is an impressive place.   Towering cliffs plunging vertically into the sea: a few seabirds making a lot of noise far below.  I was torn between getting close to the edge to see down, and wondering how safe the ground was.  There is a lighthouse,  a big foghorn,  and ... a small café selling tea, sandwiches, bananas and chocolate bars.  I sampled them all.  After the minibus left, the café closed and I seemed to have the place to myself, but there's only so much fun you can have in a place like that, so I soon headed back.  On the return journey I saw a green canister labelled GRENADE in the verge.  I decided against bringing it home as a souvenir.   Six seals on the sand as I neared the jetty.

All in all, not great as a bike ride: unless you are compelled to ride, take the minibus.  By the way, disappointingly,  CAPE WRATH!!  is derived from Norse, meaning Turning Point.