Day 2: Strathcailleach Bothy - Sandwood Bay - Kinlochbervie -Rhiconich - Loch a Garbh bhaid Beag

17.5 miles – gailforce winds, torrential rain, hail.

Sandwood Bay from the north during a brief burst of sunshine – and not one tourist in sight!

A day of highs and lows…

High: the spectacularly beautiful Sandwood Bay;

Low: a powerful headwind driving torrential rain into my face;

High: Andy from GPS Training explained what I had done wrong and got my GPS working;

Low: my Spot X emergency contact device froze but Andy couldn’t fix that;

High: I managed to speak to Rachel on the phone;

Low: horizontal hail;

High: the Belgian waffle with toffee sauce and icecream I bought at the Old School House, Inshegra;

Low: another bloody hail storm;

High: the gorgeous Rhiconich River;

High? Low?: fording the fast-growing Garbh Allt river, up to my knees, inching across on ‘all fours’ with my trekking poles, and just managing not to topple (that would have been the end of the walk);

High: pitching my tent by the loch.

Day 2 in Photographs

*Am Balg,* an islet off the coast at Sandwood Bay.

The fabulously beautiful, but gorgeously remote Sandwood Bay.

Another view of the beach at Sandwood Bay. The river’s progress to the sea is hidden behind the hill in the foreground.

The sands of Sandwood Bay, from which it presumably gets its name. Note the ominous clouds above, yet to unleash their torrent.

Loch Inchard, looking towards Kinlochbervie.

It was shortly after this photograph that the heavens opened and the downpour poured down, making photography impossible. The detour through Kinlochbervie in the horizontal rain meant I could at least get a phone signal, so I was able to sort out the problem with my GPS.