Saturday 27 September 2014

Walk 188

Kinlochbervie to Durness 26miles

A long day planned today but due to the MOD I was unable to walk up to Cape Wrath without the army taking pot shots at me!!!
           I made my way to Rhiconich at the junction with the A838 and started my walk towards Durness, the sun was already out and I had to apply a lot of suntan lotion as even though its mid September the sun still has a lot of strength left in it.
Kyle of Durness
The road wound its way through the glens and inevitably went up and came down yet another hill until I reached the mouth of the Kyle of Durness just before Sarsgrum.  A mile or so along the road and I took a left towards Keodale which is where you catch the ferry/minibus to Cape Wrath, I was surprised to see people waiting and then I saw the minibus! it turns out that you can still catch the minibus during MOD training but you cant walk across the ranges.  So I followed the track from Keodale and this was a superb walk taking me around the headland to Balnakeil Bay and its fantastic beaches.
Balnakeil Bay
Eventually I came to the village of Balnakeil, here I hopped onto the beach and it was my favourite type of walking and that was route one across 2 miles of beach towards Faraid Head.
Balnakeil BayBeach
The beach eventually ran out and I started to make my way across grass to the tip of Faraid Head, here I could see all the way to Dunnet Head the views were superb. I sat down for a while to contemplate my journey up the West coast of the UK as at this point I would be heading East and then South to my end point of Scarborough.  Once I had finished contemplating my journey I started on my way to Durness and the views were stunning as I made my way through the sand dunes at Flirum and on to Aodann Mor.
Fariad Head
I finally arrived in Durness at 5pm tired but very happy with today's walk, Durness is the UKs most northwesterly village!.

Accommodation: The Lazy Crofter Bunkhouse. Basically a youth hostel...enough said!!! £17.50

1 comment:

  1. Jealous - you've got the whole north coast to come. Be prepared to regularly pick your jaw up from the floor!

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