26th May 2024

Sleepless night waiting for the alarm, but when it did ring, I could not stop it quickly. Van packed quickly and we were away well before 6:30

Into the queue for the boat loading, and soon on board. Seemed quite a new boat, and the biggest we had been on this holiday amongst the islands. It even had a second layer on one side of the vehicle bay for cars.

Smooth trip across. Wish I had not eaten the Cornish Pasty for breakfast, everyone else was tucking into a Scottish Breakfast. The black pudding looked scrumptious, though I did hear they had cut corners on the beans, not Heinz.

The trip was 160 minutes and smooth. A pleasant view from the front viewing lounge. Whenever I went up on deck, I had to use the stairs that also go down to the car deck, the noise from all the car alarms going off is a real racket.

When we arrived at Ullapool what struck most was trees & green – green grass, green trees etc etc.

Unloaded and straight to Tesco. An exceedingly small one, but we did alright buying wine and Campari which was on offer. Had to do a big Tesco shop.

Now it was the drive to Poolewe and the Camping and Caravan Club site. I told Google to stop at various places along the route, some were viewing spots along the road.  One though was a Gorge. The Corrieshalloch Gorge, run by the National Trust of Scotland. It has various waterfalls down the canyon, and a suspension bridge for pedestrians where you can a good view of the gorge and a waterfall. There is also a viewing platform further on to view the suspension bridge.  A rain forest. Certainly, masses of moss. All very impressive. The NT carpark and buildings there opened this year. You can buy a coffee and cakes there.

A few more stops, and we made it to the campsite. Checked in and walked into Poolewe. A shop, which we may or may not use, and a small art café.  All closed today or because of the time.

Had a quick look around the graveyard, sat on the bench, like two old people, looking over the loch, and attempted to photo the sunset.  Today we had all kinds of weather, sun, rain and boring cloud.  The sunset was photographed in the rain.

Looking forward to breakfast tomorrow. There is a roadside shack on the Northern end of the campsite. They do good coffee apparently and have breakfast pies.  Never had a breakfast pie before.  The place has all 5* reviews in Google, over 60 of them. Nothing less than 5*. I have never seen that before.

Track