Day 2 – Windy
Ben Loyal hotel has been owned and run by the same family for 16 years. It’s the only restaurant in town open to all comers - the Tongue hotel caters only for residents. The bar was buzzing with an eclectic mix of locals, bikers and people of an age who were clearly doing the North Coast 500. Guiness at £5.95 a pint was hardly a snip, but the alternatives were Scottish pish. I dined on Whitebait, nicely crisp and served with tartare sauce and a venison burger which was pleasantly juicy. I rounded it off with apple crumble and custard which was excellent – big slices of apple and a large crumb on top. If anything, the portion was too big but, after a day of cycling I felt I deserved it. The shower was nicely powerful, and the single bed was comfortable. The heating system was hit and miss – when I arrived the radiator in the room was working but it soon went off. Not that it was necessary. The weather up in Scotland is still quite cool 12-15 degrees as against the 30 degrees plus in southern England. Breakfast was not the best but filled a hole. Neither of the FSBs I’ve eaten so far has featured good bacon but the sausage at Ben Loyal was tasty. Scrambled eggs were tasteless and rubbery.
Knowing that I had less then 50 miles to travel I decided to delay my departure as the weather was forecast to improve as the day progressed, so I finally left at 1034 in overcast conditions but no rain. There is a good
view from the hotel over the Kyle of Tongue which I snapped before leaving.
A couple of miles from the village a causeway crosses the Kyle and it was
already blowing a Force 4 as I crossed, making it an interesting journey. There is no cycle lane but the traffic was light and courteous and I made it across safely.
You are immediately into a relentless climb for about five miles, not particularly steep but the motor came on on a couple of occasions. At the top of the climb there is a nature walk around a lochan alongside an abandoned cottage. Air BnB anyone?
Still no rain and that was the case for the rest of the journey but the wind was something else blowing relentlessly from the south west at about 15-20 mph. Once I had crested the hill I swooped down with views towards the open sea in the distance
My route now followed the shores of Loch Eriboll which extends inland from the Atlantic for about 6 miles. The road is narrow with regular passing places and I was able to use these so that I did not hold up the regular traffic. Because this is on the North Coast 500 route there was an army of camper vans and cars, mostly well behaved with the occasional idiot deciding they didn’t need to wait for a passing place
Oh that wind, just occasionally the lee of a hill sheltered me, but it was a joy to cross the valley at the bottom end of the loch and make my way up the other side with the wind behind me.
25 miles into the journey the road turned north west and I came across a lovely little bay with golden sands and emerald water. An enterprising soul had rigged a zip wire across the valley above the beach and there was a queue of people waiting to use it, though none did whilst I was watching
I was now close to Durness, the only habitation on this coast but before I reached the village I passed Smoo Cave, which bears the unique distinction in the Uk of being the only cave system that has a cave formed by the sea joined to an inner cave formed by freshwater action. I didn’t make the £15 visit though there seemed to be plenty of potential punters on this Bank Holiday. The sea has cut into the coast forming a deep inlet alongside the caves.
Now the road turned back to the south-west and the wind was, if anything strengthening. A narrow road climbed relentlessly and, mainly because of the wind, I kept the motor running. A couple of miles past the village the road runs alongside the Kyle of Durness from where you can take a foot ferry to Cape Wrath 12 miles up the coast.
Lots of stopping and starting to let traffic past for the next ten miles, appreciably uphill into the strong breeze, making it hard work until I finally arrived at the turning to Kinlochbervie. I naively thought the journey all but over but there was still 4 miles of up and down, in one case 15% down that I shall have to climb tomorrow to get back on course. Still, I arrived at the Kinlochbervie hotel at about 1630hrs and checked in and stuck Lucy in a garage overnight. Food is only available until 1900 hrs, so I’ll do the usual offices and get down for food and drink at about 1800.
It’s been a tiring day; but my legs are fine. Tomorrow is probably the gnarliest in terms of climbing, only 50 miles but a lot of up and down: hopefully the wind will drop.
