Friday morning was grey and damp, but we were packed up and were of the wood before the showers started. Once again it was a day for waterproofs, cool strong winds were blowing stormy looking clouds across the sky. We made good progress along the quiet road into Lairg, the only traffic was council wagons moving earth and scrub, these were up and down the road all morning making us move of the single track road when they came.

At Lairg the weather really turned nasty, the strong winds increased and showers turned into a real downpour, this was not encouraging as it was here that we were to head out into the wilds of Sutherland. We stocked up with food at the Presto as this was to be the last shop we would see until we reached Tongue. While Paul was in the shop a local chap came over to me for a chat. He tried to convince me that I should go to Tongue on the post bus. He seemed mystified why I should want to walk there. When I explained, he seemed amazed, considering the weather I suppose it did seem a bit mad.

 

 

As we left Lairg and made our way along by Loch Shin the wind was whipping curtains of rain towards us across the water and the grey grim clouds were torn into tatters as they raced across the sky. It did not seem to affect our walking as the wind was not from the north, but it did make a dismal prospect of heading out into the wilds in these conditions.

We actually made good progress, and were only a couple of miles from Rhian by lunch time. Today it was difficult to find anywhere comfortable out of the wind and rain to have our lunch, eventually we climbed through a gap in a forestry fence and settling down among the pine needles in Strath Tirry forest. Here we were sheltered from the wind and reasonably dry but the rain managed to drip through the trees, not a perfect resting place but it afforded us shelter for a while. It was not the weather to linger, to keep warm we had to keep on the move.

 
Back on the road we were soon at the house by the river known as Rhian, It was only about 2.30. Far too early to camp although I had previously obtained permission to camp by the river which now raced under the bridge and roared on down to loch Shin. We pressed on and soon entered an area of almost continuous forest. The road led steadily North through featureless terrain, the conifers were on both sides and although not close up to the road we had no view to enable us to plot our progress, the map remained tucked sway out of the wet most of the time. As the day wore on we were on the lookout for a campsite, not an easy task in these surroundings, so when we eventually spotted a track of about fifty yards in length leading to an area of, long grass where the trees had receded from the road we decided to make this home for the night.

The rain eased slightly while we pitched the tents but before long It returned with a vengeance and absolutely lashed down. We were glad to finally zip up the tents and settle down for the long night ahead and hope for a better day tomorrow.

The only water available was in a ditch by the road through the forest, this was the colour of cold tea due to the peaty land that it had drained through and of course it tasted of chlorine after we added the necessary purification tablets.

 

 

  

 

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