Tarbet

We had 100 miles ahead of us this morning on our journey from Tongue to Ullapool. As we put the front wheels of the car onto the first stretch of single track road with passing places, His Lordship was heard to mutter, 'I hope we don't have 100 miles on a road like this'. I've deleted the epithet he used. He can be so negative at times....

In fact we had a fair few miles as we wound our way across country and then round Loch Eriboll, stopping to accommodate drivers who used the road as a race track, before the turn off to Tarbet and an even narrower switch back road seemingly to the end of the world, but landing up in a little haven on the shore , created by Croftcrafts and the Crofter.

We explored the garden created by Croftcrafts behind their house, from seemingly inhospitable terrain, and with a magnificent rock face of shiny grey Lewisian Gneiss as a backdrop.

It is a work of art with stony paths, little bridges, a pond with water lillies, and a wealth of colourful flowers and shrubs. To come on this after miles of rocky hillside minimally covered with vegetation, is such a delight, and an amazing achievement.

After a coffee and directions to get back to the main road on an alternative route, with the admonition of keeping right at all junctions, we drove the remaining 50 miles to Ullapool and the extortionately expensive Ceilidh Place for 2 nights.

An ice cream, a beer and a look at the MacBrayne ferry arriving from Stornoway, we are forgetting the cost of our stay, and remembering with pleasure our short blipmeet in Tarbet.