Scotland West Coast, August 2018

15-19th August - Leeds to Mellon Udrigle

First we drove to Dornoch to pick up the van, with a night in nondescript Stanley along the way, followed by a trip up the barren Carin Gorm. At Dornoch, we unloaded the car, and struggled to get all the stuff into a much bigger vehicle. It seems that tight and efficient packing in a car doesn’t translate very easily into practical and accessible storage in something you need to live in for a week. I think with practice, we’d get quite good at it, but for the first six days we lived in chaos, unable to find anything; we cracked it on the last day I think, having worked out that obviously you just need to always put stuff back where you found it.

Out of Dornoch, along the A9 at 60mph, thinking how easy it was to drive, we approached a roundabout. I put my foot on the brake, and... and not a lot happened... after standing on the brake and just about negotiating the roundabout safely, we continued along much more gently to Gairloch, a great campsite set amongst Dunes with a great playground for the children, and the best stocked campsite shop I’ve ever seen. We thought it was so nice we stayed for two days, before remembering that we’d paid to hire a van in order to go places.

Next stop was the endearingly named Mellon Udrigle, a nice campsite with spectacular views, though no facilities. But then who needs facilities when you’re carrying them with you? With the sun shining, we sat outside with glasses of beer and wine, and marvelled at the beautiful mountains across the sea, through the mesh of midge nets. Yes, the midges love Mellon Udrigle too.