The Land of the Giant Toad
Jul. 2nd, 2022 08:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
smokingbootIt's possible that the Good Neighbour was disgruntled enough to send a little bad luck our way. The ferry to Handa Island wasn't running due to high winds on the water, and Smoo's Cave was a proper nuisance: you need cash for the tickets and we hadn't seen cash machines for many miles. There are however, ATMs about 3 miles on from the cave, but we found this out by accident, there's no information about any of this at the site. We were irritated enough not to bother going back, and settled for that most highland of activities; driving with the bonnet down, just enjoying the roads and the views. Sometimes the air got a bit soft, but nothing to take the shine off it all. We made our way to Lochinver, which has little to it, unless one counts beauty, in which case it's got everything including giant toad warnings:
There's one general shop in the village, (a Spar which also serves as pharmacy) one fishing tackle shop, some hotels, an excellent restaurant, and a pie stall which was deserted when we arrived. The waitress served us hot chocolate and told us about the lack of 'stuff' in the area. She's 19 and spoke wistfully about the need for a nightclub, the lack of cabs. In many of these places there's a man who runs some kind of taxi service from time to time, but in Lochinver he'd given it up.
Weeks prior to us starting our journey, the place we had booked in Lochinver had contacted us to say they were selling up and couldn't honour our arrangement. Everywhere was booked out in advance, so we settled for the youth hostel, which is bang slap in The Middle of Nowhere. Our satnav disagreed with us, and took us to its preferred version of The Middle of Nowhere, a convincing contender. I feel the car was trying to tell us something, that we should have got out and explored, but we would have been blocking the way for anyone equally lost, and it's worth considering the kind of road that can be blocked by a two-seater Mini.
We found the Youth Hostel close to this:
It's hard to complain. We had a family room, it was clean and OK, the one issue was the lack of en suite. I'm headed for 60, I really do like a bathroom close to my bedroom, but still, it was only a couple of yards away. Trouble was when I got up in the early morning to use it only to find it soundly locked. As mine was not a particularly, er, solid requirement, I was able to engage with the natural surroundings with a minimum of guilt, if not consternation as lights blazed on with Bladerunner keen every time I moved. It didn't matter really. I got to see the world before it wakes, the lulling sea and the hills so silent, and it struck me that this really would be the time to go wandering. Admittedly not in my pyjamas. Not with those toads out there.
There's one general shop in the village, (a Spar which also serves as pharmacy) one fishing tackle shop, some hotels, an excellent restaurant, and a pie stall which was deserted when we arrived. The waitress served us hot chocolate and told us about the lack of 'stuff' in the area. She's 19 and spoke wistfully about the need for a nightclub, the lack of cabs. In many of these places there's a man who runs some kind of taxi service from time to time, but in Lochinver he'd given it up.
Weeks prior to us starting our journey, the place we had booked in Lochinver had contacted us to say they were selling up and couldn't honour our arrangement. Everywhere was booked out in advance, so we settled for the youth hostel, which is bang slap in The Middle of Nowhere. Our satnav disagreed with us, and took us to its preferred version of The Middle of Nowhere, a convincing contender. I feel the car was trying to tell us something, that we should have got out and explored, but we would have been blocking the way for anyone equally lost, and it's worth considering the kind of road that can be blocked by a two-seater Mini.
We found the Youth Hostel close to this:
It's hard to complain. We had a family room, it was clean and OK, the one issue was the lack of en suite. I'm headed for 60, I really do like a bathroom close to my bedroom, but still, it was only a couple of yards away. Trouble was when I got up in the early morning to use it only to find it soundly locked. As mine was not a particularly, er, solid requirement, I was able to engage with the natural surroundings with a minimum of guilt, if not consternation as lights blazed on with Bladerunner keen every time I moved. It didn't matter really. I got to see the world before it wakes, the lulling sea and the hills so silent, and it struck me that this really would be the time to go wandering. Admittedly not in my pyjamas. Not with those toads out there.
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