Crabby

Backblip.

Visited Cape Wrath today. We walked south out of Durness to the ferry point. There were only ourselves and 3 other people waiting. The ferry is a small (passenger only) boat. The ferryman is an amazingly weather-beaten guy with a cute dog that sits at the back of the boat and guards the money.

You get picked up at the other side and driven 12 miles across the loneliest landscape in mainland UK to the lighthouse at Cape Wrath, mainland Britains most North-Westerly point. Davie - the driver- keeps up a very interesting running commentary for the whole trip.

What I didn't realise is that the mainland surrounding Cape Wrath is a live firing range. The road takes a route right through the centre of the range and is subject to closure by Army fire control. Soldiers from Nato regularly visit the area to exercise & bomb the hell out of the peat bogs and rocky islands just off the coast. Apparently the fighter jets drop 1000 live bombs onto the small island of an Garbh eilean just off the North coast. We heard 3 loud explosions coming from there during our week long stay

It was very misty when we were there so the views from the Cape were limited but we did get to meet the local woman who went out on Christmas Eve to buy a turkey in Durness and got stranded by the bad weather for a month while her husband was left at the lighthouse. He runs a cafe so he had plenty of provisions. He said he was glad of the peace :)

We took the ferry back across the Kyle of Durness and then walked around the coast back to Balnakeil and Durness. We found this little (dead) fella in a rock-pool on the beach. Dead crabs bleach fairly quickly in salt water so he must have recently snuffed it as he was still brightly coloured.