Day 11 - Tuesday 20th June

Ardelve to Durness

236 Miles - Actual 250miles ( bad habits again! )

Start Accomodation: Dornie Hotel - Dornie
End Accomodation: Caberfeidh Guest House - Durness

We will be leaving the hotel carpark at 9am.

Special Notes

a) RETURN TO THE A87 AND CROSS THE BRIDGE.
b) RESET THE TRIP AT THE 2ND ROAD OUT OF ARDELVE.
c) THE APPROACH TO APPLECROSS BAY AND THE COASTAL ROUTE MAY WELL BE THE MOST IMPRESSIVE PART OF THE ROUTE.

The Route

Map
Directions
AutoRoute 2000 Map - software required
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Daily Log

The news from them that knews....

250 miles today, and 185 pictures!!

After the farce of dinner last night, breakfast seemed to go without a hitch...and we all set off in cloudy but sunny weather...as predicted by the fabulous alarm clock!!

The roads seem to be getting better and better, and today has been the best so far.

We started off on fast A roads but these were soon replaced by something far more scary, resembling little Switzerland. Gary managed to get to the end in one piece, but at the end he was walking like he had a jack between his legs and needed a quick change of underwear. (Gary says: I'm not a wuss! I'm just afraid of heights!)

En route we even passed a couple of Gary's old girlfriends, otherwise known as... Highland cattle or hairy cows!

We then had lunch at Gairloch in a quaint sea-food restaurant. Eileen thought that she had ordered haddock and coriander soup only to find that the haddock seemed to be missing! As we all burst out laughing she suddenly realised that the haddock had been substituted with carrot..all Eileen had to say was "Well that would explain why it was orange!!"

After lunch we met Si and Fran in their Mariner Menace who joined the merry band and blasted down to Ullapool. It started to rain and just as all of the convoy were moaning John began to celebrate as he no longer had to wash his very dirty car!

The fast roads turned into scary twisty turney roads, but the grin factor increased with each bend!

However we are slightly concerned that somebody keeps nicking the road at the top of each blind summit!!! And Gary says "Why do they call them summats...haven't they thought of a proper name for them like?!"

The convoy carried on to Ullapool, and were quite concerned as to why Chris and Mark had pulled over and were letting the rest of us by. We had a rest 5 mins down the road when Chris and Mark turned up looking rather happy, arms waving in the air and lights flashing.... Chris had just found out she'd passed an exam at work and was soon to be promoted... Everyone congratulated her and thought it was great news....especially as it sounded like a great excuse for a good party tonight!! We even radioed ahead to the RAF at Leeming who quickly despatched a brace of Panvia G3 Tornado's who barrel rolled overhead as the convoy continued on its merry way. (it was only after we'd seen them that we realised that it wasn't Gary's exhaust!)

As the rain got heavier the roads got faster and we passed breathtaking scenery..dams, massive hills, picturesque vistas and ....sheep! Lots of sheep! Sheep by the hundred! In fact more sheep than you could wave a minty stick at! The shepherd (!) we passed just told us that we needed to peep our horns and the 200 odd sheep that were blockading the convoy would move... Chris and Mark were particularly concerned about these sheep as they hadn't yet received their Donutz grill and so gingerly drove through the 200 sheep with a wary eye on hoofs and tails!! 10 minutes later we were on our way.

More rain, but we made rapid progress, uplifted by the thought of a hot meal and cheering England on...oh yes and and the fact that if you went below 43mph you got very very wet!

We would like to bring to the attention of the WWW mx5 community that several of our team put up their roofs in the face of a slight drizzle (read HURRICANE GARY!!) We were very disappointed and feel that they should be publicly humiliated (Chris said flogged..but she's kinky like that!!), the hall of shame reads as follows (ahem..clears throat)....

Chris 'Its must be your round' Cook

Malcolm Grey(day)-Stephens

Bob (smiley) Moore

Fred (the Icon)

So its 7pm and here we are at the Smoo Cave Hotel, blackmailing the owner for a TV to watch the England match (but he may have to call round the village and see if 'Boycey' has one to hire) and he also doesn't realise yet that he's about to lend us the use of his phoneline ;o)

....Much later from the bar of the Smoo Hotel.....appalling result from the football team..but fantastic result from Les and Karen, the proprietors of the Smoo!! Superb food, and unbeatable atmosphere combined to create the best evening so far!! What can I say......It's an Around Britain 5* stop!! (tel No 01971 511227 - call in whenever you've got a chance!) And the tequila slammers didn't do down too badly either!!

Anyway, signing off for tonight... tomorrow the fun starts all over again... For ENGLAND James ;o)

P.S Big shout out to the Edinburgh posse Ade and Caroline..see you soon guys!

P.P.S Gary managed to pull a dog.....no really....a jack russel that insisted on sucking his toes!!

Now did someone say photos....

A way to start a day!