North to South

Hi. Most walkers do the Cape Wrath trail South to North but I want to feel I’m heading home so I set off on Friday 24th April, packing up Wilson and walking to the Kyle of Durness ferry. There were eight people on it and it was full. It’s an open affair with an outboard motor. The back of the boat was about six inches above the water. I hoped we didn’t hit a wave. The ferryman told us that the minibus driver at the far end was going through a sex change from man to woman. He wasn’t.

The driver gave us a commentary on the 11 mile journey on the worst road in the world. It took an hour to get there. Cape Wrath is a military range and there was a mortar shell hole next to the road. Lots of deer and there are golden eagles nesting on the highest mountain. 

The driver told us that the sphagnum moss on rocks by the side of the road had antiseptic qualities and was a great substitute for toilet roll if you were caught short. I suggested to him that we should try to make toilet roll from sphagnum moss so it cleans and disinfects your arse in one wipe. He said we should take that pitch into Dragons’ Den. 

The end of the Cape is bleak but beautiful. 

I set off walking south and instantly got wet boots and socks in the peat bogs that are endemic in Western Scotland. The cliffs are quite spectacular. 

It took me five hours to get down to Sandwood Bay, where I was going to pitch Wilson. It is quite stunning.

It was breezy and I decided to carry on to a bothy further inland. It took me two hours (because I stopped to catch a beautiful brown trout on my lightweight eight piece rod) and I found it just as it was going dark. Nobody was in it – great, but a bit spooky at first. 

I tried to get a fire going with the cut peat which people kindly leave available but it didn’t work. It looked nice when I had the candle and newspaper going in the fire though. I slept ok but it was very cold. 

Night night.