Friday 27^th June                    INVERNESS – NORTH KESSOCK – CHANONRY POINT – WICK

Robyn writes: I must say I found it really hard to wake up this morning, as I took ages to go to sleep last night – the seagulls which apparently roost on this house were cawing and screeching until after eleven, when it finally got dark enough for them to sleep, I guess. I’m really hoping they go elsewhere tonight. We had breakfast, chatted to Cait and Danny, then got ourselves out the door reasonably early with the aim of dolphin spotting as our first activity of the day.

Lex had been told by the bloke at the wildlife sanctuary that the best place to see dolphins was at North Kessock, across the Kessock Bridge, so that was our first port of call. No dolphins in sight. We got talking to a resident across the road from the car park, and he told us that they haven’t actually had dolphins there in four or five years, as sewerage is pumped into the firth nearby. However, he said, (and the internet agreed), the most likely place to see dolphins was at Chanonry Point, another twenty minutes or so up the firth.

So, off we went to Chanonry Point. When we got there, it was blowing an absolute hooley – so strong that at times it was a struggle to walk upright. We made our way around the lighthouse on the point to a (thankfully) slightly more sheltered part of the rock beach. There were people everywhere – some with huge cameras, everyone gazing at the waves. A bloke with a very loud voice was giving a lecture to a group on the point. There were also several dogs being taken walkies, and they were about the only ones enjoying themselves. Despite the fact that we stayed on the beach for nearly three quarters of an hour, not a single dolphin poked its nose or fin above the waves.

                                                         Kessock Bridge across Moray Firth

                                                  Chanonry Point, alleged dolphin hotspot

                                                               Staring at the waves!

Thoroughly chilled, we gave up, and headed back up the coast to Crofters, the café Lex had found in the gorgeous little village of Rosemarkie, only 5 minutes away. Here we had tea, coffee and morning tea (Lex had the fruit scone and I had a strawberry tart), and I could continue watching the waves from my seat. Still no dolphins, alas. But it was a lovely morning tea, and warm and sheltered.

                                                                 Crofters of Rosemarkie

                                                 Lex had scone with best-ever raspberry jam

We decided to give up on dolphin watching then, and move on to other activities. I wanted to go back into the town centre of Inverness, so Lex dropped me off there around 12. I had a lovely time wandering around the shops for a few hours, indulged my love of all things tartan, and had a nice warm chicken and rice soup for lunch in Good Craic, a café in the High Street. I do like the Inverness city centre! However, when I came out of the café, it had started to rain, so I headed for home, and arrived back at 3. Have had a lovely restful afternoon reading my book and ignoring the fact that I probably need to pack, as we are off on our travels again tomorrow.

                                             There are some grand buildings in the city centre

                                                               Lunch at the Good Craic

Lex writes:

I wanted to see some of the North coast of Scotland today. After morning tea at Crofters, I came back to Inverness to drop Robyn in town. Then I got onto the A9 and headed North. At first the road was a motorway, and I cruised along at 70 MPH. As I got further north, the road changed into just a country highway. At times, it was very close to the sea, and at other times it went up over hills and down through valleys, or across rivers. Cromarty bridge was a bit of a highlight. I also saw some of the North Sea oil/gas rigs and many offshore wind turbines. These are major contributors to Scotland’s energy supply.

                                                                Lots of little villages

                       Panoramic view of crop with purple flowers (we don't know what it is)

                                                                    Cromarty Bridge

It passed through several small towns and villages. They had Scottish sounding names like Libster and Ulbster. and Leatheronwheel. The speed limit through many of them was 20 MP, causing all the cars to bunch up in each town. This eventually produced long lines of cars, making passing rather useless. It was almost impossible anyway, because straight sections of road were extremely rare.

All of the old buildings were made of the same drab grey/brown stone. It is unfortunate that these buildings will last for hundreds of years, because they are depressing to look at.

During the journey, the car displayed a warning, telling me that I only had 290 miles to go before the AdBlue (a diesel additive) would be all gone! I continued on to Wick, and bought some there (at a Tesco’s service station), just to keep the car happy.  The Tesco’s grocery shop next door had a café, so I went in to order some lunch. I asked for a sandwich, and a cup of tea. The tea was delivered in one minute; the sandwich 35 minutes later. The place was far from full, and I didn’t appreciate waiting so long for the world’s slowest cook. I must say though, it was very nice when it came.

                                                           Highland cows relaxing

On the return journey, I tried to ignore the beautiful views of the sea and the mountains. The trip still took two and a half hours. As soon as I got home, we walked down to Dennis’s Chinese Takeaway (That really is the name of the place) and bought some dinner. It was cheaper than a café, and was actually pretty tasty. Of course, we ordered too much rice and couldn’t eat it all.

 Tomorrow, we go to Lairg in the highlands, on the shore of Loch Shin.