It looks like being a nice day today and Cindy has managed to get the day off, which is very rare, so so Cindy, Ivan, Sheena and myself are going for a visit to the beach. Which is only around fifteen miles away but because of that stupid track will take us two hours to get there.
On leaving I said goodbye to grandfather who completely ignored me, but that's okay as I get some sort of bizarre satisfaction from exposing his ignorance, and even more from knowing it will be killing him that I'm out of his control for the day and so maybe getting subjected to untold pleasures.
We arrived in Durness at just before eleven, where we stopped at the shop for an ice cream and some biscuits and something to drink. Cindy and I had made sandwiches but we needed something as a treat for afterwards.
From this point the main road travels east along the north coast. There is a beach at Durness but it's pretty much north facing so we went to one just a couple of miles west at a place called Balnakeil. It's a narrow road as most are in this part of the world, especially as this one doesn't really go anywhere in particular. It does seem to get a lot of tourist traffic though, mainly because of the beach and walk to the lighthouse I think.
We passed the hippy camp, which is open to the public to go and buy their wares, which is mainly craft orientated. Once we got to the beach we parked up, with difficulty as there isn't much parking space. Opposite was a big house standing alone and looking a bit foreboding. Behind us was a small derelict church and a cemetery.
Old church, beach and house.
We walked along the beach to a small headland which when the tide gets to a certain point, effectively cuts the beach in to two beaches. At this headland are some rocks which we chose as ours for the day as it was nice and sheltered and quite a sun trap. We didn't strip off or anything, I never find that a wise thing to do as you either become a target for the midge's or a victim of hyperthermia. But I really enjoyed lying on the rocks with the sun kissing my body, and knowing that for a few hours at least I wasn't going to be harassed by anyone. It's funny how you can kid yourself in to thinking you're leading a normal life until you get a day off from it, then everything gets put into perspective.
Later in the afternoon the cloud started to build, no doubt dispatched somehow by grandfather, and it went a bit chilly, so we decided to take a walk along the road that leads through the dunes to the lighthouse. We didn't go as far as the lighthouse as the cloud was building all the time so we didn't want to end the day getting soaked.
Before going home we called in at the restaurant bar type place in Durness where I had a burger and chips and a Pepsi. It was nearly eight before we left there, by which time the rain had come on so the journey home was pretty wet. It made me think of my first time driving down that track. Apparently grandfather was told that day to pick me up in the truck that we were traveling in but he ignored everyone and came in that stupid Land Rover of his. It's still rough in the truck but it's more comfortable than the Land Rover, it also has a heater that warms you up plus windscreen wipers and lights that enable you to see where you are going. It just goes to show what grandfather is like.
As does his comment when we returned, "You picked a right day to go away" he said in reference to the rain, "I'm glad I didn't go." he added with great glee in his voice
I thought to myself, at last, we've finally found something that we can agree on!
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