The photos in the previous post tell most of the story.
We left Perth early on Friday morning and drove for about 5 hours (with just a brief T & P stop) to a tiny hamlet called Blairmore, which is as far north west as it is posiible to go without falling off Scotland.
A 4.5 mile walk took us to the start of Sandwood Bay, a glorious 2 mile long stretch of unspoilt beach with sand dunes and a large freshwater loch behind it. There was only one tent pitched in the dunes (where most people chose to camp) which had to bode well for our favoured spot to be vacant. We found this spot last year and it ticked all the boxes, over the next headland from the main bay, with its own beach, a little burn for fresh water and only reached by a strenuous climb over the headland.
As we reached our spot, the weather, which had been warm and sunny up until then, started to look more ominous. Black clouds appeared in the south followed by a distant rumble of thunder. We managed to pitch our tent about 20 minutes before the full storm was overhead.
It just added to the fun, cosy inside our tent with plastic cups full of red wine, and the thunder and lightning raging overhead.
Just over an hour later, in brilliant sunshine again we were on our deserted beach cooking pasta for dinner!
We slept like logs and after breakfast and a 3 mile jaunt up into the hills the next morning, we broke camp and headed back to the car in the mid afternoon.
From 4pm on Friday until 2pm on Saturday we neither saw nor heard another living soul. No phones, no TV, no music and no sounds of "civilisation" at all.
We saw gannets and terns diving, fulmars, frogs, dragonflies, a heron, several red kites and 3 great skuas.
There is no better way to unwind.
We will be back next year......
