Leaving John O Groats we travelled further south down the East coast.
Back on ordinary roads again, how I missed those quiet single-track road of the West coast.
The A99 took us through Wick and on to the A9 towards Inverness, which is technically the end of the North Coast 500.
A visit to Morrisons in Inverness was needed to stock up our food supplies and fill up the diesel tank.
Then onward towards Nairn just east of Inverness
Nairn never lets us down. It becomes a safe haven, a place of tranquillity for us.
We booked into the C & C Club campsite on the Saturday night for two nights.
That evening we feasted on a cooked chicken (courtesy of Morrisons), Sautéed potatoes and salad. The Bacardi made an appearance, as I didn’t have to drive anywhere
Sunday morning saw us head of to Rosemarkie on the opposite side of the Moray Firth to our campsite.
I found the small forestry car park on the outskirt of the town and managed to squeeze Puffin in, as this was a popular attraction for a Sunday morning.
A small path left the car park and we walked on to the Fairy Glen. A waterfall set in a magical woodland. The path was challenging in places, but you have to overcome things to enjoy the beauty .
First waterfall
Second Waterfall
We drove the short distance to Chandery Point to see if there were any Dolphins, but alas nothing.
We left the Rosemarkie area and travelled back on the A832 towards Inverness. A few miles from Rosemarkie on the left-hand side is the entrance to a Forestry car park in a small wooded area known as Clootie well at Munlochy.
A short walk from the car park and the woodland view changes to something surreal.
Items of clothing, pieces of cloth all hang from the trees.
The legend of the Clootie Well is that people used to take sickly children there and bathe them in the water from well.
Nowadays a piece of clothing or cloth is soaked in the well and tied to a tree with a wish for good health.
The material is left to rot away. It’s considered unlucky to remove any cloth offerings
Unbeknown to the E knitter I had two pieces of bright green cloth that I had hidden in the camper before we left home especially for this moment. We soaked our cloths in the well and added them to mass of hanging wishes.
Back to the campsite to catch up on some laundry and clean out some of the debris and sand that has accumulated in Puffin over the last few days.
As always when we land here in Nairn we end up booking an extra night stay, so we could stay until Tuesday.
Monday morning and we parked up by the beach in Nairn.
The Fishermans wife statue at Nairn harbour
A lazy walk around the town and then onto the beach, before we returned to Puffin to have a bite to eat.
We just sat for a while, because the previous days had been constant travelling and there comes a time when you have to stop to unwind.
In the late afternoon we returned to camp and walked through Delnies Wood.
Red Squirrel hiding in the trees
Ruby looking for Red Squirrel
Tuesday morning and we sadly had to leave Nairn. It did us good to have a longer stopover.
Escape route 