Blown Southward

Scourie
12th Sep

Our last night at Durness brought us, unbelievably, even worse weather - I didn't know it could get any worse!  We certainly felt the full power of the elements!  Tempestuous gale force winds and lashing rain which sounded as if we were being constantly bombarded by thousands of pebbles! Though common sense assured me we'd remain on 4 wheels in this unrelenting wind we rocked about so much I still wondered if we might actually tip over! But we woke to find the few vehicles remaining in what has become a 'ghost' site, still upright. The waves below so dramatic under the black forbidding clouds which were giving way to silver glimpses of sunlight making the bay even more dramatic.  Believe it or not, we were sad to leave that wild windy wonderful place.  Just before we headed off our neighbour enlightened us about a lovely campsite by the water's edge in Scourie 20+ miles down the road

As we journeyed to Scourie the sky cleared and we saw some sunshine.

We found the site at Scourie, liked it and booked in for the night!  It even had it's own on-site restaurant!  So we didn't get far that day.   We pitched by the water's edge overlooking Scourie Bay - we are so totally spoilt for views!  Haven't we learnt anything yet??!  But the weather had calmed down and we'd enjoyed quite a bit of sunshine and Scourie wasn't nearly as exposed as Durness. 

Scourie Bay

one of our neighbours

You can just make out the caravans and motor homes on the edge of the Bay

We had a lovely walk around the bay, enjoyed dinner in the restaurant and headed for an early night to catch up on some sleep!

That was the plan!  We should have known better! During the night I think the tail of that hurricane caught up with us again! The relentless wind constantly rocking and rolling Libby and rattling anything that could move - and that eternal lashing rain.  This was becoming very tedious and really not funny anymore.  At least there were lulls in the gales whilst at Durness - this was continuous! A very sleepless night, cups of tea and finally an exhausted sleep.  I was abruptly woken by Michael as day broke telling me the few campers on the site were either already gone or packing up and we should go - maybe they know something we don't!  The scene outside had dramatically changed from the beauty of the bay and surrounding mountains of the evening before to one of poor visibility and torrential rain streaming down the windscreen.  I was up, threw on some clothes and we scurried off without any breakfast to continue our journey southward to Poolewe with abandoned plans to wild camp en route!