My eyes opened at about 6.30am. Even before I had time to take my first blink, Nisha says ‘I’ve got an idea to run past you’…how was I to respond?? Just turn over and snooze? Pretend I didn’t hear anything? Rush to the loo? Oh no, me being me took a blink and said ‘fire away’!!! To put the next section in context, last night before bed, we had spent an hour or so trying to decide what we were going to do today as the weather forecast showed rain all day. Do we stay and have a lazy day and move on the next day or do we leave Durness today and work our way back to Inverness and stop at a few villages en route. I had already settled for the latter but Nisha had to sleep on the matter. She sure did sleep on the matter and her idea was to drive back to Inverness and stop at a few villages en route. Don’t you just love it when a plan comes together!!! 👍🏽🤣🤣

Eventually after much listening to Nisha and nodding in agreement from me (I swear I was agreeing to what I suggested last night 🤣🤣😜😜), we showered, packed our bags and made our way to the kitchen for breakfast. Nisha explained to Rhona that we had changed our plans and would be leaving today to make our way to Inverness. True to form, both Rhona and Ray were fine with our decision and even suggested what route we should take so we could see more sights. All good, now for some food!!! Both had opted for orange juice, a starter of porridge, a main of smoked haddock on toast, all washed down with a cup of tea for Nisha and a cafetière of fresh coffee for me.

Rating for today was an easy 10 / 10, I will so miss the porridge!!!

Breakfast finished, and I mean finished, no waste at all!!! I put on my vast backpack, bag of dirty washing in my hand, Nisha grappled with her hold-all and our bag of food…I still have no idea what’s in this bag bar a carton of decaf coffee and chocolate corn cakes. As we’re going to different villages, all the luggage is stored safely in the boot (yeah ok, it’s rammed in the boot where we can find space, I’ll post a photo soon 😜🤣😜🤣). Luggage stored, we head back to pay our bill. Cash only!!! Nah bother!! (Graham, George, Mandy and Ann, I’m learning the lingo!!! 🤣🤣🤣)

Ok, before I’m allowed to continue, Nisha has made sure I’ve necked a pint of Guinness and started a large glass of Rioja!!!

So, I’m now continuing after drinking 2/3 of the bottle…these Geordie’s struggle to drink anything other than water 🤣🤣🤣

B&B paid, now back in the car and our adventure starts…first stop is Scourie. The rain hasn’t stopped since we packed the car. Every now and then we get teased with a flash of sunshine and then a hammering of rain and wind…where’s the snow??? 😜

The road to Scourie was uneventful as all the mountain tops were covered in clouds and the rain kept coming down hard…as soon as we arrived at Scourie, I got out and took a photo, got back in the car and onwards to the next village…Unapool. This time, the stop was literally 2 minutes to allows me to take a photo, turn the car around and leave…

Next village was Kylescu. By this time, I was overtaking cars left right and centre, for some reason, people cannot drive in rain!!!

Kylescu does look like a lovely village, I parked up and took a photo. This photo took about a minute and in that minute it looked like I had a shower!!!

Now the fun started. This bit is for all you drivers out there. The road from Kylescu to Drumbeg is a drivers delight. Forget a manual clutch driver car, forget an easy changing automatic gearbox, just switch to manual paddle shift mode!!! The next 23 miles were the best roads I’ve ever driven. All single track, with bends, some sharp, blind turnings and blind summits!!! I was so alive and full concentration on the road. I hardly went past 3rd gear, usually opting for 2nd to go round the corners and to accelerate away from corners and go uphill. I’ve never felt so in charge of a car and learnt so much about the cars capability!!!

Eventually Drumbeg arrived and didn’t disappoint!! As we parked up, a Jaguar sports car departed.

After taking the above photo we were back on the road, again the road was single track and I was back in full concentration mode.

I manoeuvred the car left, then right…even caught up with the Jag and eventually they had to pull over and let me pass…on we went….all of a sudden….’Jes…you just went past the turning to a beach where they wild swim’…that was Navigator Nisha telling me 50 metres after the turning. I take a sharp left into someone’s driveway, reverse back and make our way to the beach, known as Achmelvich beach. This was about 15 minutes one way off our route. Again, a single track road. Luckily only one car was coming in the opposite direction. The car park was full of large puddles of water but all were shallow to allow us to park without any damage to the car.

With jackets and wind heaters on, we followed the well trodden path to the beach. If the weather was warmer, I can guarantee you that both is us would have changed into our wetsuits and gone for a swim!!!

The water was calm but when I put my hands in the water….it was cold, I mean very cold!!! Both is us made a mental note to come back to this magnificent beach!!!

Lochiver was our next destination. Another single track road, again full concentration mode and just a joyful drive. There wasn’t much to stop for at Lochiver so we did a drive past and continued to Ullapool. Another fantastic single track road, and with more rain, I just loved the challenge. This road has more turns than we had experienced.

Ullapool arrived, and after a quick drive around the high street, we found parking on a side street. Once again we put on our jackets and wind cheaters and set off in search of a toilet and lunch, yep, in that order. A toilet was found in a nearby hotel in which we also drank a lovely coffee. From there we found a lovely sea food shack. It is called The Seafood Shack. Operated by 4 women, we both decided to get smoked trout salads.

Nisha had already started munching away while I was on a telephone call. As she was finishing her portion, I started mine. Each mouthful was tasty and it was filling a gap. Nisha had finished and got up to get some napkins. It was during this time when the wind really picked up and whoosh…my salad got blown away. Did someone think I needed to go on a diet??? About a third was blown onto the floor. I was gutted but I overcame the trauma of not finishing my food. It’s not always about filling your belly!!! I’m not mentioning any names 🤣🤣🤣🤣.

Back in the car and on to Inverness. Or so I thought…navigator Nisha had another stop she wanted to visit. ‘Jes, it’s on the way, it’s called Rogie Falls, it’s a waterfall and literally a 5 minute walk from the car park’. For those who know about Nisha’s 5 minutes know that 5 usually means an hour!!! Firstly, Rogie Falls was on our route, secondly, the waterfall was 5 minutes from the car park and thirdly it actually was an ok waterfall. (We’ve seen better!!!)

The rain did drench us to and from the waterfall!!! Next call was Inverness. Back to dual carriageways!!!

We had completed the North Coast 500!!! The latter part of our adventure being very emotional but also joyful.

While I was on the phone at the Seafood Shack, navigator Nisha has booked a hotel in Inverness. All I knew was that the hotel has a swimming pool and is near the Tesco which had run out of diesel when we had visited it before.

The rain was getting heavy as we pulled into the car park. I had driven for over 5 hours!!! Nisha checked the weather forecast. Rain should stop at 4pm. The time was 3.40pm. What a dilemma, do we trust the Met Office weather forecast or just make a run for reception and get out luggage later. We ran…checked in, and our room was around the back of the hotel. The receptionist said that there is parking available near our room. Thank god for the rain and our lack of trust in the Met Office!!!

Around the corner and towards the back I drove. I parked near our room and we unloaded our luggage and swim bag.

We have an external luxury terraced chalet. The shower would be described as a tropical rainforest experience. Luggage dumped, we head to the pool. It’s only a 10 metre pool with a jacuzzi and steam room. The pool was sufficient for a few laps and under water competitions. A quick visit to the jacuzzi and our time was done. Showered and back in our room, we decided to go to the Whisky Lounge for a drink. The drink ended up being a Guinness, a bottle of Rioja, a main course of pan fried hake for me, roasted monkfish for Nisha and a shared cheese board to share for dessert.

With the food all consumed, we slowly drank the remaining the wine, so slowly that we didn’t have time for a single malt!!!

Back at our room, Nisha decided to have her daily 30 minute kip while I continued with this blog. To my astonishment, 30 minutes was 10 minutes!!! The need to fill out the breakfast in our room card and a hot chocolate appeared to have overcome her 30 minute kip!!!

You’ll have to wait until tomorrow to see what we’ve ordered for breakfast!!! Could it be porridge??? Could it be a vegan fry up???yes yes, I can hear you all shout…‘you’re too predictable when it comes to breakfast!!!’ As for Nisha…even I don’t know what she’s ticked 😜😜😜🤣🤣🤣.