Our hosts at Otterburn House, Mike and Peta, couldn't be more helpful, doing our washing (!) and even taking us to the Kintail Craft Shop in Aultachruine to do our shopping. Despite the name, this is not just a craft shop, but an everything shop selling food, groceries and even Firepot dehydrated meals. We stock up then saunter along a footpath to The Wee Bun where we have coffee and lemon drizzle cake.
We while away a couple of hours there, sitting at a picnic table in the highland sunshine and looking out over the loch, until it's time to buy a sandwich and sit there a bit longer. A little field mouse darts in and out of a dry stone wall, gathering crumbs from underneath the tables. Herons fly past and fat seals bask in the sunshine. An otter even pops its head out of the water a few times then dives back down.
Loch Duich, along with the neighbouring Loch Long and Loch Alsh, forms a Nature Conservation Marine Protection Area to safeguard its burrowed mud and flame shell colonies. This limits human activity and, in particular, fishing which allows a rich biodiversity to flourish including large mammals. It's incredibly beautiful. We've driven through here so many times in the past, it's wonderful to stop and look. We do a bit of route planning, though not every estate's stalking details are available, then wander back to Otterburn House.
We sit down to do some serious organisation and check the Ministry of Defence website to discover that the Cape Wrath firing dates and times for September have been published. The only free days are between the 16th and 20th of the month, which severely limits our options. We will have to get to Kinlochbervie by the 18th and have already booked our stops until the 15th, so fast road walking is our only option after Ullapool until the Cape Wrath wilderness. It's not ideal but our aim has always been to complete the walk, rather than follow particular trails. Fingers crossed!
