Fog!

 Ha, ha, so much for a beautiful view to have our morning coffee! Overnight the fog descended and to be honest, we could have been anywhere, there was no harbour to be seen! We still had coffee, obviously, but not viewing the sea birds!

However today we have to keep going, we can’t stay all day waiting for the fog to clear, we have a date with a ferry, so off we go - slowly. The fog (well I say fog, we actually think it is more mist than fog (Jane tells me it’s a sea haar) is merising, it drifts across the road like wisps of smoke, we get  glimpses of coastline, hills, sunshine then we are back into the mist. We can see the road ahead, but the horizon is shrouded in mystery, we have no idea what is round the corner, each bit of road only reveals itself when it is ready. We’ve not really experienced mist like it.  There is something very special about it. Clearly taking a photo won’t work, you’ll see mist, but if I thought it would work, I would have!

As we won’t really get a picturesque lunch stop today, and stopping at the side of the road in a grey van in mist isn’t the best idea, we stop off at Wick for lunch and stretch our legs. We thought Wick would be another pretty town, but, well.. it wasn't. There’s nothing wrong with Wick, it just isn’t pretty, and it is very small. It does however boast the most northerly Wetherspoons in the UK, and despite everyone telling us we should never frequent them in protest of their owner (yep we agree, dispicable man), we love Spoons. We know people don’t go because of him, but we aren't perfect, so in we went. It did make us laugh though, it was like no other we have been in. There were very few people in, I’d say more staff than customers, but they were running around, welcoming, good food, all of that, but how you can be so busy doing nothing is an art!

After a quick walk around to ensure we hadn’t missed the best bits (we hadn't) we were off again passing a huge oil pipeline on the way!

This bit of coast is fairly sparse, when the heather blooms it will be beautiful, but for now much of it is dark and barren, amazingly, for much of the trip we have been the only people on the road, or at least very few others are around.

But as we head north the fog clears and a few more cars appear. This is why….. 

It's one of those places you just have to do if you have come this far north, and it is absolutely worth the drive up, but there isn’t a huge amount here. There’s this, of course

And some gift shops, an ice cream shop and a cafe, but not much else. What else could there be I suppose, the only people who come are tourists and they aren’t going to stay for days.. Although there is a caravan site here if you want it. I’m glad we came, I doubt we will be back. Isn’t it funny, a little harbour nobody has ever heard of has stolen our hearts, the iconic place so many flock to is just that, a place to go and have your photo taken.

Mind you I did purchase and write the first postcard I have written for about 25 years! I needed change for the parking, so it seemed a sensible option. No idea where we will post it, but dad will get it at some point in the distant future!