The wind howled and the rain fell heavily again overnight. In the morning, however, we have a lovely breakfast in the Scourie Hotel, then meet with Yvonne. Rich is also trying to organise our transport home, but the remoteness of the area and the Queen's funeral combine to cause complications. It gets more or less sorted out and Yvonne says she will meet us for coffee one last time a little further on. Our procrastination has allowed a heavy shower to pass, so it's all good. We have been walking for ten weeks and are on the last map.
We continue along the A894, climbing steeply out of Scourie (Sgobhairigh in Gaelic) and onto a plateau. We skirt round various small lochs then start descending towards the junction at Laxford Bridge, the imposing silhouette of Ben Stack (720 metres/2362 feet) in our sight line immediately ahead. Yvonne soon catches us up and we stop for coffee and tea cakes. Her timing is perfect as another shower passes as we sit in the camper van. Then it's a final goodbye as she heads for home.
At the junction, we turn onto the briefly single track A838 and it's uphill again. This is the pattern for the day, climbing up over passes then dropping down to cross stretches of water before heading up again. There is a viewpoint at the next plateau and an information sign about glacial erratics. I hadn't really noticed, but there certainly are a lot of random boulders dotting the skyline.
It's down again, up again, down again and then we reach Rhiconich where we stop for lunch. This time the shower catches us. The classic Cape Wrath trail route overnights at Rhiconich, then take two days to arrive at Cape Wrath, with a camp at Sandwood Bay. We are pressing on to Kinlochbervie so that we can combine the two days. Given the appalling weather we've been experiencing overnight, this is probably just as well.
At Rhiconich, we leave the A-road and the NC500 behind and continue along the B801. This passes through a series of small fishing villages. The white and dun houses and the broken landscape are reminiscent of Newfoundland, although without the dense tuckamore vegetation. This is not surprising since southern Newfoundland was once attached to Scotland and Scandinavia.
The last of these villages is Badcall Inchard where we stop at MacKay's store. As we turn around, there is a stupendous view across Loch Inchard to the mountains Foinaven and Arkle with distant peaks just visible in between and Quinag away to the south on one side.
We gradually drop down into Kinlochbervie. There is a real feeling of remoteness here, with only a few more buildings north of us. We arrive at the Kinlochbervie Hotel, our last destination before Cape Wrath.
Total distance so far: 886 miles
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