Stones

A travel day. Woke to cold and drizzle (as is becoming depressingly regular) and packed up the car then we set off north. I had two Teams calls to be part of at lunchtime and early afternoon so we stopped twice for coffee and cake then later tea so I could take a proper part for the first hour of each, and were gobsmacked to see V and her friend walking towards us in the first cafe! They were on their way back south after a few days break so we chatted for a wee while, laughing about planning for Borneo amongst other things.
As we left the second cafe and we’re setting the sat nav for our hotel for the night I realised we’d be passing Tain so on the off chance messaged Arclight to see if she and Alfthomas were home. Delighted that they were, so popped in to see their northern outpost. Lovely little town and their house is lovely inside, with beautiful old stone walls around the plot and lots of progress on the garden all around. We chatted about their plans for an attic extension and studio and about my new bike then set off again to Helmsdale. Lovely beaches next to the road most of this stretch and masses of gorse on the sloping land …but there was quite a thick haar so we didn’t stop for photos. Dropped our bags off then popped next door to a very strange restaurant -strange in the sense of the decor which was random and OTT (a lamp in the shape of a corset on a stand of women’s legs, a free standing bear model and a tree stump with blue fairy lights round the branches…bizarre!). Despite that we enjoyed a huge delicious plate of fish and chips and others had mounds of langoustines.
Back to the hotel and had a cup of tea in front of the open fire and chatted to a couple who were on their way around the NC500 route. We revisited our photos and blip entries from the time we were last up here (2016) and were able to give them some tips for places to go….we had much better weather then though!
Had a lovely long hot bath then an early night…ready for the holiday!