Project Scotland v2 | Kungfu at Mellon Uldrigle Beach

From Torridon, we checked out and continued our journey in the highlands.  We drove up north and stopped by this restaurant by the coast for lunch in Aultbea.  Our destination for that night was in Ullapool.  By this time my midgies bites were so itchy and killing me.  And because we were in the middle of nowhere most of the time, there were no pharmacies along the way.  I wonder why none of the others reacted as badly as I did.  I need an anti itch cream, some anti histamines, just something!  RX the doc amongst us, assured me it's because I have a good immune system which knows the good from bad and trying to tell me these midgies ain't good for me.  To which then the guys in our group looked at one another and asked "why are we not reacting then!?  Are we ok?" lol

Having seafood for lunch since we were so close to the sea

View from our table.  We ordered tea and coffee after our meal and sat outside on the benches.

Spotted: A ultra extended family of ducks.  They lead such idyllic lives here.  Both humans and ducks.

After lunch we stopped by a sandy beach about 10min drive away.  And practised some kungfu moves, directed by hubby K.

Walking down to Mellon Uldrigle beach

Happy to be at the beach

It's not common to have sandy beaches in the UK as most are pebbly beaches

And yes, kungfu moves like these:

Hubby K showing us how it's done

Go hubby go!!

Who knew Lolly was this powerful lol

We had two very good and trusty drivers, one of which is hubby K.  As most of the roads were through wild and remote landscape, besides admiring the view, we chatted and even sang along to songs on Lolly's Spotify playlist.  We stopped by at a couple of spots not on our itinerary but were beautiful.  Usually we tried to spot parked cars along the road and if it's more than 3 (remember, this area is very remote) it's a sign of a good photo spot.

Stopping by Beinn Eighe (pronunciation anyone?) since we saw a few cars parked nearby.
That's always our cue for "something to look at!"

No doubt, a poisonous albeit beautiful mushroom.  It was bigger than my palm!

It was here that we said hi to an elderly Taiwanese couple who were happy to see fellow Asians and even commended us on our very "good standard spoken Mandarin"

So beautiful when the sun is out

A photo stop on our way to Ullapool

Ah finally we arrived at civilisation!  A little fishing port in the highlands.
We stayed overnight at the Arch Inn

Ullapool

On the third day, we continued westwards on our journey, ending the night at Durness.  This day was the most relaxed of all and consisted of a lot of driving.

First we stopped by Knockan Crag, the place where they did studies on rocks and these rocks were thousands of years old, some of which "drifted" from as far as America.  Plate tectonics and stuff like that

The oldest yet most agile amongst us

We did a simple hike up to see a view of the lake (or loch as they call it locally) behind us

Soon dark clouds were above us and by the time we reached this famous pie place for lunch at Lochinver it was raining quite heavily.

That's a huge bowl of mushroom soup (so good and hearty) and we ordered three pies to share
Venison with cranberry / Chicken and leek / Steak & ale

I love leek and so enjoyed my chicken and leek pie

We arrived to a rainy Durness so where else to go but a nice cafe with a hot drink?  Coincidentally we had planned to visit this local chocolate shop where they pride on serving the best hot chocolate in the world.

It was drizzled with white and milk chocolate all over and yes it was heavenly.

Our accomodation in Durness was the best in this trip.  Oh that boutique hotel.  We were so excited to check into our rooms and saw how beautiful each room was.

My fav - shabby chic bathroom!

Even this cistern is so nice!  Inspo for home decor!

And look at the cosy lounge by the fireplace!

No doubt, it was a beautiful sleep that night.