Day 6: The Applecross Rollercoaster
The sixth day of our Magical Mystery Tour took us over a small (yet significant) bridge to a stunning castle, through amazing scenery bathed in glorious sunshine (in fact, you would think we were driving around the Italian lakes!), onto the Applecross Rollercoaster!
I was up early again for my morning walk; after all the food last night, it needed to be a good one to give me some decent exercise. And it was a great walk …helped along by waking up to a cloudless sky and brilliant sunshine.
I headed out and down through the village of Dunvegan to a place I had spotted the day before, which I later discovered was part of the ‘two churches walk. This led to the millennium stone, overlooking the village, the loch and surrounding area. It was a good hour-long walk with plenty to see…
…and on a day like today, it was fantastic.
All too soon though, it was time to return and get ready to move on.
The bridge and the castle
As you may recall, initially we were not that taken with Skye, but after that lacklustre start, we were sad to be leaving and it is now firmly on a growing list of places to come back to!
We headed back toward mainland Scotland. this time there would be no ferry, we were driving across the Skye bridge.
I don’t know whether it was the direction of travel, or that the sun was beating down on us, but the landscape didn’t seem so barren this time, in fact, quite the opposite. It was beautiful.
We meandered through the countryside toward The Skye Bridge, and given the warnings/comments we had heard from people over the years, we were expecting something momentous…
Uh, ermmm…
When we got there, it was well about the size of the ‘Blofield A47 bridge’ (that’s a bridge in a small village called Blofield in Norfolk. In other words small …very small!)
Now I don’t want to cause bridge envy, but if you want a longer, higher, and far more imposing bridge then you need to drive over the Dartford Crossing! Now that is scary!
Anyway, not too far along the road was the magnificent castle of Eilean Donan Castle …now you don’t find many castles in Blofield! Actually, you don’t find many castles as spectacular as this anywhere!
It is recognised as one of the most iconic images of Scotland all over the world. Situated on an island at the point where three great sea lochs meet …ok, not exactly my words, instead stolen from the Eilean Donan website, but it’s exactly what I was gonna say!
Oh and the castle also had a starring role in the film Highlander (amongst many others).
We walked around for ages, taking in the scenery and the castle. We didn’t go in, another thing saved for another day. Eventually, we came back to the castle café for some lunch, which we ate outside overlooking the stunning view.
The mishap with water
After leaving the castle we backtracked a little and headed on our way. Almost immediately hitting some strange roads that couldn’t decide whether they were one or two-lane roads.
One thing we had done frequently throughout the trip was to pull over, allowing any queue of traffic forming behind us to overtake (I’m sure you know the frustration it causes getting stuck behind one, let alone two mobile homes).
It was after one of these goodwill gestures that we noticed our lead van was gushing out water from the side of the van, so onto the walkie-talkie to tell them to “Pull over! …Over!”
Turns out the freshwater tube had become detached, probably on one of the many potholes.
A quick fix later and we were on our way again!
The Applecross Rollercoaster
When Fi (aka Marilyn) came on the walkie-talkie just as we turned a corner and started a steep climb, to say… “Here we go …Over!” – I should have known what was coming!
As with all rollercoasters… Mikey loved it and was in his element. However, for me, this was a pure white-knuckle ride from start to finish.
(In hindsight, I should have filled up my water bottle with an extra-large G’n’T!)
Single lane traffic, small and large passing bays, hairpin bends, steep inclines… Sometimes, steep inclines on hairpin bends with no passing bays just sheer drops on one side and van scraping rocks on the other. This road had it all!
We realised every other challenging road we had travelled to date was simply getting us ready for this one road!
And it wasn’t just the road…
There were also the many other vehicles; cars (in all shapes and sizes), mobile homes, camper vans, supermarket delivery vans(!), motorbikes and even pedal bikes ridden by exceptionally fit people!
Each and every one, trying to get up or down the Applecross Rollercoaster without incident, concentrating very hard to stay on the road …and if tyre marks were anything to go by, previous road users hadn’t always been that successful!
Thankfully, almost all road users were amazing and considerate, waiting when necessary, sometimes for many minutes, while a couple of vehicles negotiated a particularly difficult part of the track …I mean road!
I say ‘almost all’…
On a very difficult bit, in fact probably the narrowest section on the whole thing, one particularly couple of grumpy old women would not move back into a passing bay (directly behind them). Forcing Pete to reverse downhill into his nearest passing bay. Luckily, a very nice man in the sports car right behind Pete got out to be Pete’s guide.
Well done Pete and ‘sports car man’ (he must have heard you were Pete ‘Schumacher’ Higgins!)
But shame on the two old women! I don’t think they even said thank you ….Grrrrrrrrr!
Throughout, all of this of course the scenery was pretty spectacular, even if I was struggling to take it all in.
Once we reached the top, we still had to come down the other side, which was only slightly less nerve-wracking.
Whereas, Mikey had a massive grin on his face the whole time! He really did love the driving challenge!
According to traditional geography, we had driven through the Bealach Pass, but it will always be known to me as ‘The Applecross Rollercoaster’!
Arriving in Applecross
The campsite was fab, made even more amazing because it was a big open space and above all flat. We parked up, plugged in, and poured ourselves a well-needed drink …extra-large!
This place was beautiful …just for a change!
Applecross is a peninsula looking out toward Skye and is accessed by only two roads, the one we came across and one heading North (hmmm …this doesn’t bode well for tomorrow!)
Once we made use of the campsite facilities, we settled back for a few hours, sitting outside, enjoying our drinks while basking in the fantastic sunshine.
Amazingly, and staying at the exact same site …ermmm, in the very next pitch! …we ran into some people Pete and Fi know, Kenny, Shona and their daughter Sophie. They had been doing part of the Scotland North Coast 500 and were nearing the end of their tour too.
We spent a very nice afternoon together, chatting and sharing stories about our different trips.
It was feeling a bit more like the south of France or the Greek Islands rather than Scotland. What with the sun shining and us sitting around drinking wine and eating snacks. I certainly came away with a bit of a tan from the afternoon (even Mikey caught the sun and he’d been sitting in the shade!)
Deer, the sunset, and the lost glasses
It was a lovely warm evening again, a typical summers evening, except for one thing…
As we made our way down for dinner at the Applecross Inn on the waterfront, we came across not one, but two deer (a stag and we guess his son, a young buck), just standing around grazing.
They seemed totally unphased and perfectly happy to stand for photos. Beautiful!
Once at the Inn, we were pretty chilled and for dinner simply opted for Fish’n’chips …well, why wouldn’t you when the fish is local and so fresh. The boys had starters, more scallops!
Again, the fish was sooooo tasty… That said, given we had been spoilt in Skye, the food wasn’t quite the same… good but not to the same standard as last night’s dinner (but then we hadn’t needed to sell a kidney to pay for tonight’s dinner either!)
After that, we meandered back up the road to the campsite. As we stood in the perfect spot to watch the sun go down over the bay, anticipating a great sunset, Fi suddenly realised she had left her sunglasses at the Applecross Inn! …resulting in a mad dash back before they closed! …for them!! …well, there was no point in all of us exerting ourselves!
Mikey and I watched the lovely sunset, before turning in for the night.
It had been an adventurous day, topped off with time to sit back and relax in the sunshine. Roll on tomorrow.
Post-script
I knew it!!! – As suspected, since we are heading south tomorrow, we of course need to head out on the Applecross Rollercoaster! …I think I’ll just rise early and walk it instead!
