Day Fifty Six

East coast here we come. It has taken us ages to get to this point,
so I suspect our south bound journey will be quicker through
necessity.
Our first stop is in the town of Wick for provisions. It seems quite a
large town, and even has an airport. It’s surround by farmland, and
in that moment of exit from Wick, we see that the wilderness is
gone. We are in farmland again.
We don’t end up getting very far – some 80 miles from where we
started, but Dunrobin Castle is nearby and we want to see it
tomorrow. We end up stopping in the shores of Loch Fleet which is
next to a nature reserve. The first place we stop has a couple of
blokes fly fishing in their waders. That part of the Loch is blocked
with sluice gates to protect the salmon until they are ready to run.
We explore the sea side of the sluice and find two seals bobbing
away. They are quite curious. The first one we see responds to the
international “pet come over” call I make and looks right at me. I
hope for a moment he might come over – he’s totally engaged, but
his buddy turns up and talks him out of it.
We decide to prop for the night and drive out along the loch to just
before its head, where it runs out to sea. As its a nature reserve
there are plenty of sea birds, mussels galore on the shore (someone
ottery is eating them, for sure…) and countless seals bobbing about.
It’s quite funny, if they are close enough to hear, they respond by
giving you their full attention. There’s even a baby, I can see his tiny
little seal butt as he flips over.
The view is lovely. Across the loch is a mountain, around us, a
mixture of farm land and nature reserve, and to the east, the ocean.
A ruin of an old stone house sits behind us. The sun is setting as I
write this and it’s very peaceful.
The lake is still. I think I will look for my furry friends, photograph the
sunset, and drink my peppermint tea.