Holiday - Scotland Day 13 - Drive around North Coast and Smoo Cave

Scotland Holiday Day 13

Drive around North Coast and Smoo Cave

Today we got up early as we had planned to drive around the North Coast particularly to visit Smoo Cave, Dunnet Head and Duncasby Head.  We set off around 8am - the weather was drizzly but looked brighter the further north we went.  We first stopped at a view point near Kylestrome to look at the bridge over the lochs.

Our next stop was Durness where we got a bit of shopping from the local shop and then just up the road for Smoo Cave.  We parked and walked down into the sea inlet.  The cave was a large rock shelter style opening.  Just inside there was a couple of walkways to allow access to a bridge to view the waterfall that cascaded into the left side of the cave.  The pool belw the waterfall filled the floor of that chamber and looked quite deep.  we headed back down the walkways to see the chap that did the boat trips had returned.  In total there were 6 of us that went on the trip.  The chap was a local caver and a member of the club where we are staying.  He is currently digging in a part of the cave to see if it extends any further.  He was very knowledgeable about the cave and the surrounding rocks.  He explained to the group about how caves were formed then took us to the bridge just into the second chamber.  From there we climbed down a small ladder and got into a rigid inflatable boat.  We all had to duck as we went under the bridge and into the waterfall chamber.  The chap moored the boat while he talked to us about the waterfall.  From there he took us to other otherside of the chamber and under a natural rock archway - again everyone having to duck.  Fom here we moored up again and all climbed out.  We went down a stream passage to a sump pool.  Above the sump pool was a flowstone bank where the chap had climbed up  and followed the passage for a fair way. We all climbed back into the boat and went back into the waterfall chamber.  We moored up on the far side so we had a good view of the waterfall for some photos.  Ducking back under the bridge we all climbed back up the little ladder andout of the cave.  Really good trip and lovely to have someone doing it who was clearly very passionate and knowledgeable about the place.  We walked back up the other side of the inlet and had a look at the stream and the waterfall as it goes into the top of the cave.

Back in the car we carried along the North coast to Thurso.  Here we got out and stopped for some lunch.  We found a bakery where we could sit in and have a pie!  A little way further round the road we stopped at Dunnet Head.  The most northerly place in mainland UK. We could see out to the Orkney Isles though they were covered in a lot of cloud.  We coud see the Old Man Of Hoy sea stack though. We took some photos from both view points and then made a dash for the car as it was very midgey!

Our next stop wah John O'Groats.  It was very touristy!  We had a little walk around until a chap arrived and started playing the bagpipes!  We hen decided we wouldn't hang around long.  We took shelter in the tea room so Tim could have a cream tea and I had a toastie.  Next we went to Duncansby Head - a beautiful section of headland.  We walked out to where the sea stacks were and passed a sea inlet that was full of birds.  There were Fulmars, Puffins, Gannets, Guillimots, Razorbillls, Shags, Gulls, Great Skewer, Oyster Catchers and many more. 

The next section of the day was to drive down the east coast, find somewhere for some dinner and then head back over to Elphin.  We Headed down the A9 till we got to Dunbeath where we found out there had been a fatal accident earlier in the day and the road was still closed for the accident investigation teams to do their work.  The only way on was to either sit it out and wait for the road to be reopened or to take a nearly 100 mile detour - there aren't many roads across the nrthern parts of Scotland.  We decided to stop in a pub for some food as we were wanting to eat anyway.  When we got inside we found a few other people had had the same idea!  The pub were very kind in getting everyone sorted out for a table and getting food out as quick as they could.  One of the waiters also rang the police for up dates for us all.  We arrived at the pub at 6.45 and by 8.45 we had eaten and they still had no idea when the road would reopen.  It had by now been shut for 7 hours!  I didn't really fancy the idea of hanging around any longer and thought we should take the massive diversion to at least be on our way.  In chatting to one of the waitresses who lived locally she said she would probably take the diversion and the roads weren't that bad.  We got on our way and 2 hours and many miles later we were back on the road we needed to be on.  Luckily there was no fog around and it stayed light till quite late.  We decided to go as far as we could on the hope that road conditions would remain ok and if they got bad we would pull over and sleep it out.  Thankfully the roads were ok and with both of us trying to help the other stay awake and alert we eventually got back to the caving hut around 1am!! We were both pleased to be back and thankfull we hadn't hit any animals.  Red dear, sheep, rabbits and owls had been fairly active during the last section of the journey in particular.  We both climbed into bed and I don't think it took ustoo long to drop off to sleep!  A very enjoyable day even with the nightmare we had at the end!