Day 4 - Skye to Eilean Donan / Applecross / Gairloch / Mellon Udrigle Beach

Monday 06/05/2019
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Slept brilliantly after a long day a few well deserved beers. There was some heavy rain in the night, but it was no bother as we got-up to sunshine and a slightly less windy day.
After a quick brew, we packed-up and finished our circumnavigation of Skye. It was nice but the wind was pretty severe at times and the weather changed every 5 minutes. Stopped in Portree for some supplies and some brunch before leaving the island via the Skye Bridge and the Kyle of Lochalsh. We headed straight to Eilean Donan Castle (where Highlander was filmed) and the weather turned brilliant. Did the tour of the castle and took plenty of pics. Lovely place and well worth the £10 fee.
We then set-off toward Applecross. The road was brilliant - the best so far. The views put Glencoe to shame and there was hardly anybody on the road. A real highlight but the road was pretty extreme with limited foto stopping opportunities. Forget it if you have a caravan! We then continued down the coastal road into Applecross itself. There is a lovely place to stay there on the shore, but we needed to get further up the road today. Lots of cafes and places to stop, all with stunning views. Absolutely loved this road and would love to come back and just do this bit. Views to die for all the way down the road - all of it stunning.
It was getting a little later than we expected so we made haste down the single-track roads. My bike can't deal with the weight / bumps / speed so I was bouncing around a lot. Eventually we got to Gairloch where I rode past a perfectly good campsite as I was keen to get to Mellon Udrigle Beach for a place I had read about on the Internet. Had a chat with the farmer and we set-up camp behind the sand dunes out of the sea wind (£10/tent). The sun kept shinning and we quickly rustled-up some coffee, soup, sandwiches and mini pizzas. Heaven, but we only have a porta potty to use (farmer drove it down to us) as there are no toilet facilities to speak of (and Internet reception is intermittent at best).
Dino bought Guinness in Portree but one of the cans split in his topbox so half his clothes now smell of beer.... Quick walk down the beach and finished what was left of the booze. Brilliant day, with a stunning location to end, but it was pretty hard work - the 200 miles felt more like 400 given the roads.
Tomorrow we continue up the NC500 through Lochinver, Drumbeg, Kylesku Bridge and up to Durness and Ceannabeinne Beach.

Mileage: 864
Country count: 2 (GB - England, Scotland)
Beers: 22.5
Fines: 0
Bribes: 0
Ass pain: 4/10
Mechanical issues: 0.5 (well Dino's sat-nav fell-off and I had to cable tie a water hose to stop it rubbing)
Accidents: 0
Wetness: 1/10
Coldness: 3/10
Midges: 2/10










































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