Like the Seychelles but without the palm trees…

What a fabulous day!  The weather is brilliant – azure blue skies with pure white fluffy clouds and a sapphire blue sea!  We have a visitor outside Bessie’s door – one of Jim’s multi-coloured chickens (as in they’re all different).

We already have a plan today and that is to take a trip south of Lochinver and then drive down the coast on what we can see is another very minor road!

As we go up the road from the campsite, the lochan is as sapphire as the sea and the mountains look slate blue in the distance.

We pass a cow and her calves alongside the road – they don’t move a muscle.

Our first detour is to Achmelvich, a little bay just down from Clachtoll Beach.  I have seen photos of it online and it looks idyllic.  The road is as narrow as ever.

We parked Bessie and walked towards the beach, which was tantalisingly hidden by the flower-strewn grass.

Then a glimpse of blue as we neared the dunes…

And…. WOW!

This must be the most stunning beach in Scotland and we have seen a few good contenders.

Pure white sand and water so clear you could probably drink it (bit salty though).  All that and nobody on it except us.

I found it very hard to tear myself away from it so sat on a rock snapping away while Peter did his usual mountaineering lark and climbed up the rocks to see what was on the other side.

Eventually we tore ourselves away from this paradise and carried on our journey towards Lochinver.  In many of the lochs there are lily pads and some are already coming into bud.  What a fabulous sight they will be then.

Lochinver is a great little port – just a few houses and shops strung out around the harbour.

The only thing that spoils it is the large fish processing plant at one end but it represents a lot of employment for the people of the area.  There was a small catering van beside the harbour and it was selling a mouth-watering assortment of sandwiches, hot and cold fillings of every description and drinks as well.  We ordered a couple of baguettes which turned out to be so large we saved half for the next day!  That and a small tub each of Mackies chocolate ice cream made a great lunch later.

We carried on down the (mostly) single-track road down the coast and came to the little settlement of Inverkirkaig set in a pebbly bay.  We managed to park Bessie close to the water and spent a while photographing the juvenile Dunlins, Oystercatchers and Eider Duck that were there.  Our old friends the Red-Breasted Mergansers were there too but rather far out for good photos.

There followed a stretch of road that was the narrowest we had ever tackled, as this photo taken through the windscreen should show:

But the views over the tiny stone wall were great:

The road mercifully widened slightly and when we reached the coast there were more stunning mountain-scapes, flower covered beaches and views of the Summer Isles.

We sat and watched this Grey Heron stalking its fishy prey amongst the reeds but eventually he flew away unsatisfied.

There was an assortment of old anchors and other seafaring items on one of the beaches:

The sun sparkled on the water as we made our way back along the coast – unfortunately the road, as happens so often in these parts, came to a dead end and we had to retrace our steps.

This bull and his mate looked peculiarly Spanish we thought:

The late afternoon settled down to that wonderful light where everything stands out like 3D and the mountains looked as if they were in Cinemascope somehow.

Back along the narrowest road in the world the gorse glowed warmly and colours appeared even more heightened than ever.

A lamb ran to find his mum and the cows we had encountered earlier, plus some others, being chivvied along the road in front of us:

and we have never before encountered a warning sign about toads in the road!

The road winds it tortuous way around the hills and eventually we get back to the campsite.

What a great day and how we are beginning to love this part of Scotland.