Orkney to Ullapool in T199 RBS

I’ve been beetling about in a blue car. All in one day I left Orkney by ferry across the Pentland Firth, revisited Thurso (still no waves) and beautiful Brough Bay (still there) and had a quick walk along a beach called Farr. Driving west across the north coast of Scotland I found the town of Tongue and followed a footpath to its ruined Castle Varrich that sits on a hill looking down. Back on the road, moorland stretched for miles towards Ben Hope and Ben Loyal, with Loch Hope and Loch Loyal between. There wasn’t a building in sight and the road was narrow, passing yet another a loch where, be warned, you sink into peat if you try to swim. I wanted to linger at Sangobeg Beach, but had puffins to find before dark at Durness. I asked for directions to their cliff-side burrows, but the directions weren’t right, or I didn’t listen, and instead of puffins in burrows I found sheep in sand-dunes. At 10 pm and growing dark I gave up on puffins and settled for sheep, but to my delight, one of them was darker than usual and even had a broad white stripe running down its face, and wasn’t a sheep at all, but a badger. Then there was another one, which followed the first into a burrow. I couldn’t linger here either, as I had miles to go and promises to keep before morning, so I retraced my steps and drove on further before pitching a tent on a magnificent moor, with white cotton grass flowers all round. By three in the morning it was light again and, wide awake, I carried on driving via Inchnadamph. At long last a sign told me I’d arrived in Ullapool. And what good timing that was, as a bus from Inverness had also just arrived in Ullapool, a bus that had my mum on it!