Day 12 - Rest Day Kinlochbervie
Day 13 - Kinlochbervie - Strathchailleach bothy (14K, 200m ascent)
After a long, cold week I was feeling pretty exhausted, both mentally and physically, so a rest day was well needed. The Kinlochbervie Hotel, although pretty much the only show in town, was comfortable and accommodating. They kindly washed our reeking kit and proper food was more than welcome.
There’s not a great deal to do in Kinlochbervie once you’ve visited the Spar (my wife thought I meant “spa” on the phone and had images of me bobbing in a nice whirlpool of warm water - if only). Determined not to be cold, we picked up a 20kg bag of coal and split about half of it between us, donating the rest to the fire in the cosy bar.
As we set out the next day along the undulating coast road that stretches North from the town, the packs weighed as heavily on us as at any other time on the trek. I tried to keep focused on the fact that we’d be guaranteed a roaring fire when the day was out. As we passed through Oldshoremore, the views of the coastline were simply beautiful, and offered a tantalising foretaste of Sandwood Bay.
It was very cold but bright, with little wind. Perfect conditions we thought until we reached the track at Blairmore. What is normally a great 4x4 track that hurries you towards Sandwood Bay had been turned into a skating rink by successive freeze-thaw cycles. It was now that I started to really regret sending my crampons home from Ullapool.
We made careful progress along the ice, diverting onto the frozen heather when possible, but soon enough we crested the ridge that overlooks Sandwood Bay. In the winter sunshine we were privileged to see Sandwood Loch and the magnificent arc of sand at its finest. Frozen paths made the descent hairy and when we got to the beach itself, we found the sand frozen solid to the wavelike - a definite first for me.
From the bay we could see the Cape Wrath lighthouse in the distance, a tantalising reminder of how close we were now getting. And then came the first mishap of the day. Whilst trying to take an “arty” shot close to the beach, I slipped on the ice and came a real cropper, with the camera taking most of the force of the fall. The faithful Canon had taken its last shot of the trip.
On the map, the few kilometres from Sandwood Bay to Strathchailleach bothy looks very straightforward, but it is deceptive. The outlfow of the loch was crossed relatively easily, but scaling the next steep frozen climb was quite challenging. The bothy itself is a low slung building that sits down in the glen and is hard to see until you’re upon it. The best advice is to find the end of lochan nan sac and then walk a bearing to the bothy. In mist or darkness it can be easily missed and is guarded by a foreboding moat of bogs.
Perhaps fittingly it was inhabited for many years by a hermit called Sandy and when I eventually arrived, some minutes ahead of Bob, I immediately felt the place had more of a soul than other bothies. When Bob came through the door I was shocked to see him bleeding from the mouth - he had slipped on the frozen ground and hit his face - a reminder that even straightforward ground can cause you to come unstuck.
The bothy sits next to one of Scotland’s finest peat beds and, having lugged our coal for many miles, we discovered that we could have happily burned peat for many days to come thanks to the sterling efforts of the local bothy caretaker in keeping supplies up. So once I’d cleaned out the fire grate we got a roaring fire going and warmed our toes. An old copy of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was also a welcome find. We were warm and the next day was Christmas Day. And we’d finally be at the Cape. Not a bad way to spend Christmas Eve all in all.
