We are home quite late after a long day, but I’m going to do my best to write and post everything tonight. Otherwise I fear I might forget things (if I haven’t already.)

We woke to some of what I call “nothing music” on my phone. Turns out that when I put my sleep watch away it then plays the alarm on my phone. Normally it’s just the haptic thing I feel on my wrist. (One of the reasons I do like to use that watch and haptic is because if I’m sleeping on my side and my left ear is what should hear an alarm I simply won’t hear it — silly almost deaf ear!) We took a bit of time rising, but the noise below us was growing louder: we are right above the breakfast room, it seems!

We dressed and went down and Dan had the Scottish while I have the vegetarian breakfast. I neglected to take a photo of the breakfast room or our thrilling breakfast. You will have to use your imagination. But here — have a menu.

The four men behind me were in heavy garb and we heard their motorcycles later: the NC500 is a popular ride for motorcyclists, as Dan had told me.

After breakfast we went up to prepare for our drive. We will head south a bit today I think. The blogs and articles I’ve read suggest at least a week for the NC500, and some suggest even longer. I’m sure we won’t do the all of it, but we’ll certainly hit a lot of spots. (The actual map for the drive begins and ends in Inverness and we do end there since that’s where we return the car on Saturday, and we did start out from there as well: we just inserted Isle of Skye into the mix.)

The first map I set up for the car was to Gairloch.

We started out by heading down a street here we hadn’t yet been on.

From there it was out of the village, and while I’m not sure I should bother naming all the villages I’ll start by doing so. (I may run out of energy.)

Lochluichart:

Dundonnell (the small plant caught my eye … no clue what it was):

Laide:

Poolewe:

I’ve seen these “Elderly People” signs a number of places. They bug me. But sort of crack me up, too. Sure, I think an elderly woman who is hunched over should follow and hold on to the back of a man who also can’t stand up straight and must walk with a cane. Makes perfect sense.

We arrived in Gairloch, where we wanted to stop for what we now call “non-lunch”. We found this rather interesting coffee shop/bookstore. Lots of things about John Muir. A lot about Bob Marley, too. And a lot of anti-Trump things. We ordered scones (that didn’t really seem scone- like) and coffees. Then we found (finally) an actually NC500 map in the bookstore so we picked that up as well.

And now I’m confused because the next photos also say we are back in Poolewe. Hm. Maybe we did turn around for a bit. Or maybe my brain is befuddled. Or maybe both. You choose.

It started to rain while we were driving by Loch Maree. What a shock. Who knew it would rain in Scotland?!

There were lovely trees as we drove by Kinlochewe.

We stopped in what the iPhone says is Annat due to a mountain with snow on top that was lovely. It’s interesting to see the snow-topped mountains here. I also have seen several signs that say “Private Fishing”. No problem for us as we most definitely don’t fish.

Here are shots from Kenmore:

Arinna (assuming the iPhone is correct, but that’s the case with nearly all these images and who knows for sure?):

And we reached our next goal: Applecross. Yes, I was scared of the road, but it turned out to be mostly okay going to the place. And we say more hair coo! One even came running up to the fence, but I wasn’t yet out of the car so I missed that, as well as the running all of them did at one point. And those beasts are speedy! We also saw deer.

We thought we might get dinner in Applecross but there wasn’t much there and the one restaurant that had indoor seating had no openings at all. So instead we opted to find our way back to Ullapool. Little did I know that that was when the drive would get scary for wimpy me! I will post photos and videos below, but please know they look like a breeze. But on a skinny road with drop offs on the side and the occasional car or van coming toward you on a one lane road is SCARY. Honest! But there were also pretty views at times. So there’s that. Some of this is from the area called Kishorn, and some Sutherland and Ross

Dan indulged me and stopped (ON the road) so I could shoot this rhododendron, but I MUST get more shots of some plants, as some are so covered in flowers you can’t see anything but a big poof of color. Truly amazing. This one, though, was just so tall, so I put my phone out the window and shot looking up.

In Ledgowan we spotted a rainbow. (Later there was a double rainbow but I could easily shoot it.)

After about 1 1/2 hours we reached Ullapool. Whew. One incredibly day with scary drives and all. Dan is my driving hero!

Once we put things into our room we walked down to dinner. Nothing super special, but I told Dan he deserved his beer (and more, but he stuck to just that).

Tomorrow we again move on. We will still be doing the NC500, though. Stay tuned!

Oh … and NO stats for today. For one thing I forgot to even wear my watch but, more significantly, we simply walked very little and it’s not worth posting. So I’m not going to bother writing that I walked a measly 3,246 steps, went 1.37 miles, and climbed 3 flights. Because no one needs to know that.

Right?

G’night!