The Wild Mountain Thyme

3rd July 2012 (also to be posted on my return to civilisation)
I am lying in our tent exhausted after a day of stravaiging around the hills and moors north of Sandwood Bay. We were not disturbed by any spooky happenings during the night and woke bright and early to stunning sea views from our tent. Our objective today was to walk from Sandwood Bay to Cape Wrath and back, a return journey of about 30 km. Fairly soon it became apparent that this was not feasible (for me that is; James would not have found it a problem!) I was quite tired - perhaps the night in the tent was not as comfortable as I thought. The weather was absolutely wonderful - not what the forecast had predicted - and as a result I was rather hot and bothered as we crossed the tussocky grass and boggy bits on this totally untracked route. I was really annoyed at myself for my slow pace, I feel such an unfit failure. James was very pleasant about it and revised our plans to a circular route of about 10 km - it also had about 1000 feet of ascent. This was quite enough for me and made the day more relaxed; I went skinny dipping in Loch Keisgaig in the safe knowledge that there was no one else for miles around - the whole day we had the hills completely to ourselves. At least I hope so - James tells me that the area is used as a training area by the armed forces so for all I know the hills could have been full of SAS men in camouflage! We did find a strange garment - part of a jacket that was covered with masking tape that had little pouches in it where some sort of explosive had been - there were little wires sticking out of the (empty) pouches! A bit like what a suicide bomber might wear! Perhaps a remnant from one of the training exercises. The area was so beautiful! Gentle hills and moorland, with lots of mountain thyme that scented our path, and beautiful tiny flowers in purple, blue and yellow among the grass. James pointed out bog orchids and also sundew, which look a bit like very small Venus fly traps. On top of the hills there was sandstone studded with pebbles from streams millennia ago. There were skylarks twittering in the sky and James spotted a golden plover. Out in the blue sea we could see a couple of fishing boats. The day got hotter and hotter, and we had no sun cream. This was foolish but we honestly thought that grey weather would be the most we could hope for and didn't expect this glorious sunshine. Soon I was burned on my arms, face and midriff. I also ripped the skin on my legs on a barbed wire fence and fell when crossing a river on stepping stones, bruising my knees very unattractively! For the last part of the walk we crossed the Chailleach Burn and dropped down to the beach. We could see gannets diving into the sea for fish. By the time we got back to our wee tent I was roasting and sought out some shade over at the sand dunes until I cooled down. Later James and I had a bath in a deep part of the burn leading out from Sandwood Loch, so we felt nice and fresh for our freeze dried tea (chicken tikka this time!) This really is an idyllic setting, and I'm enjoying the time with James. At sunset we walked along the beach accompanied by little grey and white ringed plovers who hopped along watching us and whistling.