Note: This happened on the 22nd of August 2012.
Just before the town of Durness, if you are coming from the direction of Tongue, is Smoo Caves. I had read about Smoo Caves and was looking forward to the visit.
When it hasn’t rained too much the night before, the inner caves of Smoo are accessible by boat. For the inner chamber tours, it costs money, but to visit the first chamber is free to all.
Luck would have it that it rained the night before and it was too dangerous to conduct any tours. But the waterfall inside Smoo Cave didn’t disappoint.
It was so big, I got completely wet. I was very worried about all my cameras. But they survived.
It’s a downhill walk from the car park to Smoo Caves and then uphill back again. From there many drive off. But we crossed the road to the other side, where there is a bridge and you can see how the river breaks through rock and creates the waterfall inside Smoo Caves.
The two holes ensures that light always enters the waterfall chamber. Otherwise, taking photographs may be completely impossible.
There are lovely beaches in Durness, as is there an art village with galleries and stuff to explore.
Driving on, we entered the area of the North West Highland Geopark. Scotland used to be connected to America and Greenland, and also under thick ice, glaciers and such. So this area is shaped by tectonic movement and erosion and climate change. The ice wore down parts of the rock to create rivers and lakes – the lochs. So it was a great drive. Very scenic. From rough high mountain to rocky flats to sandy beachess like that at Balnakeil.
We wound around and between lochs and stopped at places like Elphin before reaching Ullapool, where we stopped at Highland Stoneware where you can see the process of the craft as well as purchase serving dishes, plates, cups, mugs etc.
Hungry and a little out of desperation, we ate Indian food. The selections were mind boggling and the briyani was too oily, but quite tasty, but stay away from the nasty sweet curries.
Ullapool is a small quaint town, where you could spend the night, but we had to move on, and the skies were overcast with rain.
We almost missed a waterfall along the way. But I managed to make the turn off. It turned out to be the Falls of Measch. The falls were big, so big, that what I thought was a plume of smoke was actually the water spray of the waterfall. There’s a suspension bridge from which you view the falls. Unfortunately it was raining and the light was not great, so I am not posting a photo of it.
The stop turned out to be a blessing in disguise as I realised I had left my camera in the restaurant in Ullapool about an hour away. I was incredibly furious at my carelessness, but at least we managed to get back there and retrieve it, or I would’ve lost about 3 days of photos. Yes, my laziness of transferring photos to the computer each night had got the better of me.
Too far from another big town, we decided to stop along at the Aultguish Inn situated along the highway. It was a huge room as it is meant for handicapped people. so that was nice. My father reminded me to lock the car, which I double checked. And I’m only telling you these details because of what we would discover the next day.