Our journey today has been much less eventful than the last couple of days with, dare I say it, the roads being kind to us. After avoiding a herd of highland cows, we stopped at Applecross Smokehouse where we purchased some very tasty smoked cheeses, salmon and trout.

We traveled to Gairloch with to stay at the Sands Caravan and Camping site. There are a couple of Camping and Caravan sites in Gairloch but you just have to continue approximately three miles down the road to get to this one. The site itself was easy to check into with them leaving us to our own devices in choosing a pitch. There was a good mix of caravans, motorhomes and camping but it did appear that the groups flocked together in various parts of the site. It’s certainly not a level site all round but there is a fair opportunity to get a pitch that doesn’t leave you screaming at the spirit level. During the obligatory glass of wine to test how level we were, a fellow motorhomer arrived in the area where we were. Now, during our pitching process, we had identified that all the ground to the rear of us was completely saturated and not worth risking. This was not however identified by this new residents.  They gaily went driving off the road onto the grass behind us and, rather then being happy with the first available site, decided to explore. This rapidly became an error. They had sunk up to the axles; the owners, who by now were identified as first timers in a lovely clean rental van, were distraught. This is where we really noticed a camaraderie between both caravaners and motorhomers: within minutes we were out (as were about 5 other sets of residents). Between our Milenco ground pads, a good bit of pushing and the assistance from a 4×4 family car, they were freed to much amusement and relief. We always park on the Milenco ground pads now if the ground is even slightly wet.

Once we had assisted, we went for a good walk through the massive dunes that separate the site from the beach. The dunes and beach are great for kids and adults, very clean and protected from the wind. We thought we could happily spend a good period of time at this site if the weather was kinder.

 

As we got further round the north coast, the technology became better, but even here we lost signal for the Google Maps that had done so well so far; a lesson learnt! From now on, we would use the offline option and download the next section of maps onto the phone to ensure mapping was available. The site itself had no phone signal for the 3 network but, for a charge, had a limited WiFi connection (though this was run by a third party provider – Highland WiFi – and not the site itself). The site did provide free WiFi at it’s Cafe/Restaurant called The Barn, so for the inconvenience of having to sit down with a drink you could connect once again to the outside world. The Barn takes advance bookings for dinner and breakfast, providing take away options for those with small children. Be aware though that they only have certain delivery days so do run out of eggs on occasion.

As this was an brief overnight stay, we went for a quick stroll along the beach in the morning and then onto new adventures.