North Coast 500 (day 1: Friday 13th July 2018)

Having been packed for days I eagerly awaited my mum arriving to pick me up for our road trip up north. We were heading to the North West for our own version of the NC500.

My Gran lived in Castletown in the North East so that area has been well and truly ticked off my bucket list but the West was yet to be explored.

We left Peebles as the torrential rain fell from a dark sky, the first rain we had encountered for over a month.. Very unusual for Scotland! By the time we were over the new Queensferry Crossing the clouds parted and the sunshine beamed down for the remainder of our journey.

We stopped at Tiso in Perth to get mum a midge net 😂 and headed up the A9.

Coming off the A9 just after Inverness, we headed for Ullapool. The road was super, quiet and full of swooping corners and picturesque scenery, including many lochs.

Below is the dam on Loch Glascarnoch, which didn’t have much water on the other side!

We continued up the twisty road and stopped in a layby for dinner. Pasta pots and a drink of juice!

No midges yet!

Next stop was our accomodation for the evening. Altnacaelgach Motel, Ledmore Junction, Assynt.

The owner is in the Assynt Mountain Rescue Team and knows a few of the SARDA members with whom I help to train the search dogs. He has a collie pup, Mack, who I had a fab time playing with and winding him up! Did tell the owner he should most definitely join SARDA!

We popped into the inn next door for a wee nightcap, where I met a potential police dog pup in training! Bria is only 1 year old and very obedient and playful.

Playing with the 2 dogs certainly made up for not having Aonach with me!

We headed down to the lochside to watch 2 French fishermen before heading in to bed.