In search of hope and the unknown

We have been as far north in Scotland as we can go – all that is left for us now is to for us to drift west and south on our anticlockwise transit of Route 500.

We depart the Bettyhill Hotel in search of hope and the unknown – as it turns out we discover both! – westward towards Tongue – the scenery just delightful.

We close in on Tongue – we left Bettyhill in search of hope and the unknown and immediately we find a sign screaming out to us that it actually knows where the unknown is! – our curiosity could not be contained – off in abeyance with the sign – after a few kilometres along a well formed forest road through a young adult pine plantation we reach a parking area.

We check the car's navigation system - even it doesn't know where the unknown is save to tell us that it is somewhere on an unknown road

We look around – no sign of the unknown – just a modern day totem pole that was clearly the work of a talented but seriously underemployed chainsaw operator.

We are disappointed – clearly even for the sign back on Route 500, the unknown was really an unknown – we turn the car around – we catch a glimpse of another sign at the end of another little parking area – we venture over – sure enough this sign also claims to know the location of the unknown – even though Bernadette had sworn herself off extended walking after her herculean efforts of yesterday, she cannot resist joining me in pursuit of the unknown – after 15 minutes of steady climbing - we have achieved what Robert Rumsfeld could not do in his tenure as Secretary of State – We turned an unknown unknown into a known unknown!

Unlike some people who may consider knowledge of the unknown to be a source of power and influence we are happy to share some information about the unknown!

We are pleased with ourselves – we set ourselves only two challenges for the day and we have achieved the first within less than hour – we head off in pursuit of hope – we touch Tongue and turn south along the narrow – narrow – A897 towards Altnaharra – no sign of hope but the scenery just extraordinary! – we decide extraordinary is an understatement – “no need to write anything Mike” says Bernie – “they won’t even believe the pictures so what is the point!”

At Altnaharra we turn west and north and head back towards Route 500 and the A838 – if the A836 was narrow then this un-named road is of practically non-existent width – the scenery again just stunning – stunning – stunning.

We reach an amazing Broch with a view that commands the river – clearly a castle for Princes of Scotland at the birth of Christ.

We are just starting to wonder if we will ever achieve our objective of finding hope this day – then – low and behold we find hope but hope turns out to be a mountain too high to climb!

On reaching the river and loch the landscape has changed from the brown grassed, treeless and rugged to rich tree glades and open green pastures – Bernie cannot contain herself!

We finally reach the A838 and Route 500 – after the roads of the last hour it seems like a superhighway – the reality is that it is mostly one lane studded with passing points – the scenery is that of a rugged and magnificent coastline – again Bernie is right – you probably will not even believe the photos are even an approximation to the true visage of the landscape.

We pause in a little town outside Durness – soup for lunch – onwards – onwards – onwards – the scenery was absorbing!

More cyclists determined to conquer the Northern 500 - I suspect they are just a little early in the season for the winds are not helping them overcome the steeply undulating terrain - non of them look comfortable,

At Durness we change to the A894 – the amount of single lane road decreases – the scenery remains amazing all the way to Ullapool and our B&B – we will rest a little here.

And the MOST stunning of all!

We reach Ullaport - a stunning day!

There was just too little space in the blog to show the magnificence of the Scottish Highland scenery - here is a link to the album that shows the I larger selection of the day's acquisition of iPad electrons.