Day 4 – The Cairngorms
Somehow it got a bit later at the camping site before I had packed my things and headed out for the next stage of my trip. I was dreading the weather already while packing my tent and watching the skies. From the direction of the Cairngorms the first deep grey rain clouds came rolling my way. And it was exactly that direction I had to go to get to my first base-camp.
It came as it must, the typical Scottish country rain gave me a cold welcome. At the next stop for gas I had to make use of the rain overalls. I had to keep it until Inverness, luckily there the rain let up.
In Inverness I anyway had to stop for lunch and some shopping. The latter because I had actually forgotten to take a mug with me. Travelling to Scotland, planing for camping but not carrying a mug or cup for tea. Quickly going to the next best supermarket with a Cafe and I was done. Here I enjoyed my first authentic Scottish lunch.
The rest of the way to Latheron or rather a bit further than that was partly a bit spooky. Fog banks came up from the sea to land and allowed visibility of less than 100m in places. Add to that going along the rather curvy A9 along the coast you’ll understand that I was glad when my Nav told me to leave the main road for the last 2 miles.
But I relaxed too soon.It turned out that Google Maps knew of the (private) access road to the B&B, but my Nuviz Navi uses “Here”. It seemed to know the address, but used a different access way, which in fact was no such thing. I already wondered when seeing the road I was supposed to take.
But of course I went in. And when the Navi told my “You reached your destination” while I was sitting in a mud-track, luck had it that a local came by and showed me the right path. I was indeed happy to drive an Enduro.
The actual driveway was not that much different, but at least it got a proper tar surface.
It is a beautiful old estate from the 18th century with lots of nooks and crannies and annexes, slanted door frames and bathroom ‘cross the hall. Cute would probably describe it best. “Forse of Nature” is the name of the place and it also has a Cafe selling locally sourced food. Additionally they sell local craft, mostly things for daily use or jewellery from small local businesses out of the Caithness region. Caithness is the topmost north-eastern tip of northern Scotland. The neighbour in the West is Sutherland.
This day the driving distance was for the tie being the last longer one, a bit less than 300km. Here I had planned three nights to explore the local area.