Caravaning

Family Tour 2018 Day 5-6 - Day 6

Day 6: 27/9/2018, Altnaharra to Bettyhill and Hope (73 miles) 

Using Altnahara as our base of operations, we then set about exploring some more of the area.  However there was a small problem to deal with.  It seemed that the repairs to the caravan following the events detailed in When it all goes wrong had added to our problems.  You see, my wardrobe had become a washing machine:

 It was only affecting one side of the caravan, but water was getting in at a joint in the roof between the rear panel and the roof or wall panel.  The water ran all the way down the wall, and was absorbed by my clothes.  Using white duct tape we tried to patch joints where we thought the gap might be, and also rather than having the caravan level front to back, made sure it was a little nose down, so hopefully water would run toward the front, rather than pool at the joint.

Washing line was then strung round the inside of the caravan so that hopefully I could have more than 1 clean and dry t-shirt on the next day.

With that done, we set out for our day out exploring the area.

First order of business was lunch at The Cafe at Bettyhill.  Getting past the sheep on the road took a bit of work:

The cafe was lovely, and my daughter was smiling sweetly enough that a number of other customers commented on her and reminding them of their grandchildren.  The other side of the road from the car park were some impressive rocky cliffs

Dodging the showers, we then took a look around the adjacent Strathnaver Museum, which explores some of the areas history, and focuses quite a bit on the clearances and some of the terrible things that were done to the people who had lived and worked the land for generations.

We then stretched both our legs and the dogs and went and found a beach near the mouth of the Naver

Unfortunately, another shower closed in while we were on the beach, so although the waves were impressive, there was no dodging the rain, and were soon soaked.

We decided to dry out in the car, and head west toward Tongue and Hope.  We were rewarded with some beautiful sunny spells and great landscapes

We traveled back to the campsite via the A road, and found that it was no better than the B road the site was on, so no point heading back to Altnahara village the next morning to get towards John O'Groats.

Back at camp, there was a lovely rainbow to greet us:

Sunset was impressive, with clouds grazing across the tops of the hills:

But what I saw after dark was even more impressive.  I went outside to get some pictures of the moon rise across the loch:

Turning behind me, I noticed a faint, misty arc rising from the ground through the sky in the drizzle.  Having seen this once before, but not having a camera to hand I immediately knew that I needed to get some good pictures, as it was a moonbow.  That is, a rainbow at night, caused by moonlight.  This requires the normal things of a rainbow, with rain falling, but the sky not overcast, and has the added variables of  the moon needing to be at the right angle in the sky, and to be bright enough too, and to have someone actually looking out carefully on a damp night!