The North West Coast

After the couple of days at Braemar we headed over to the West coast to enjoy a change of scene and to play on the long sandy beaches.

The scenery once you get past the Torridon turn off is wild and rugged with lots of big rocky terrain and lochs. We stayed at Big Sands a few miles outside of Gairloch where the campsite is actually on the sand dunes and the views from the van were stunning. The only challenge with the West coast can be the strong wind and this occasion was no exception. Any ideas of sitting on the beach in my shorts and flip flops were forgotten soon after arrival. We did however manage to enjoy a delicious BBQ in the long evening sunshine.

Our bike ride in this area was a bit different to usual as we wanted to visit the site of a World War II plane crash landing where we’d heard that it was possible to still see the remnants of the plane. This involved cycling to the start of the climb up to the Fairy Lochs and then abandoning our bikes at the bottom whilst we picked our way over the rocky terrain to climb up to the site. It was well worth the visit as there was a lot to see near the memorial. The single track trails back to town and lunch on Gairloch beach added to a fun day out.