Durness

Our drive for today was another long one so we woke early to give ourselves enough time to reach Durness and fit in a brief stop. It must be the wrong time of year for wildlife watching because everywhere they claim is a great location for it has nothing new to offer. Duncansby Head is said to have Puffins and seals, what it did have was a stunning coastal view. We were a little disappointed but the coast was beautiful and on the way out Julie managed to get a picture of a Highland Cow. Our drive from John O’Groats took us through Dunnet Head (the most northerly point in the UK) and through the most desolate and beautiful countryside. The majority of the road was one lane with occasional places to pull over. We found everyone extremely nice on these particular roads, as they would wave and almost always stop for us and let us pass rather than forcing us to stop. To get an idea of how narrow these roads are, we would have to worry about smaking a biker on their head with our mirror when we went to overtake them. Our vehicle is wider than most, but even small cars look large on these roads. Occasionally we would pass by a house here or there, and signs pointing to the nearest gas station, which would be about 30km off the main road, in a small village. Durness is famous for being one of John Lennon’s favourite holiday retreat spots. Once again the coast is beautiful here. The only site other than the coast is a cave along the coast called Smoo cave. Since the campsite was 5km passed this cave we decided to visit it first. The entrance to this cave is massive. On the inside was a bench with hard hats and a note saying that the guide was just outside the cave entrance if we wanted a tour of the inner cave. We decided to check this out along with 3 other people. The guide briefly explained how and when the cave was formed and handed out the hard hats. One lady hits her head and now everyone needs to wear one of these (Julie and I both smacked our heads off the ceiling, but we think it was the hard hats fault). The tour was extremely short only lasting 3 minutes but we got to ride in a raft, see the guide feed some very hungry fish and explore a small inner chamber. That was it and was not worth the time or money. Having spent £3 each for the tour we felt extremely ripped off. The campsite was located right on the coast and we had an extremely nice view. The wind however, never stopped and was pretty strong.