Day: 005
Date: Sunday, 05 June 2022
Start: Golspie
Finish: Tain
Daily Kilometres: 36
GPX Track: Click here for Julie’s Strava & Photos
Total Kilometres: 179
Weather: Cold and overcast in the morning and late afternoon, mild and mostly sunny in between.
Accommodation: AirBnB
Nutrition:
Breakfast: Porridge & scrambled eggs on toast/Scottish breakfast
Lunch: Ham & cheese sandwich/Breakfast sandwich
Dinner: Lasagne/Chicken pasta, icecream
Aches: Dave - feet very sore and some new blisters. Julie - still cruisin’
Highlight: Some of our animal encounters today - a large colony of seals in Loch Fleet, and later on Shetland ponies and Highland cattle.
Lowlight: It got a little cold at times today (and, of course, Dave’s feet problems)
Pictures: Click here
Map and Position: Click here for Google Map
Journal:
Our B&B owner was more than happy to cook us a hot breakfast at 6:30am on a Sunday (not that common) and we ate our fill before setting off soon after 7:00am. As usual, we stopped at the village store on our way out of town and bought some snacks to see us through to Dornoch, 22km away.
The early route followed a narrow country road before turning onto a path through a magical forest where people had placed little painted stones depicting various animals and fairytales at the base of some of the trees.
From there we emerged into farmland and crossed some fields, one populated by cattle who seemed totally disinterested in our passage through them in contrast to the usual inquisitiveness then flight.
It was heavily overcast and quite cold, especially where exposed to the breeze, and Julie was starting think we were under-dressed for the day. On a particularly chilly section as walked along the shore of Loch Fleet, we were passed by a couple of well-clad cyclists, one of whom exclaimed “Shorts!”. The tide was out in the Loch exposing vast mud flats and, later, sandbanks on which lazed a large colony of seals.
Leaving the loch shore we passed through farms and fields eventually reaching the historic and touristy town of Dornoch around 1:00pm. We bought some sandwiches which we ate on a bench in the sun outside the Cathedral and across from Dornoch Castle. Being the Sunday of a long weekend, and now sunny and warmer, the village was bustling with tourists.
We followed another country lane out of the village eventually reaching the long and busy road bridge across Dornoch Firth which seemed to take forever to cross. After another 5km along a country lane we reached the town of Tain and our accommodation for the night. Dave was again very glad to get off his feet, and Julie did the usual run to the local supermarket for some dinner we could microwave and dessert.
A welcome shorter day tomorrow!
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