{"id":13840,"date":"2014-07-23T02:49:00","date_gmt":"2014-07-23T06:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tourdebocrie.com\/?p=13840"},"modified":"2014-07-23T02:51:10","modified_gmt":"2014-07-23T06:51:10","slug":"day-25-tuesday-july-22-altnaharra-to-strathy-scotland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tourdebocrie.com\/?p=13840","title":{"rendered":"Day 25. Tuesday, July 22 – Altnaharra to Strathy, Scotland"},"content":{"rendered":"

Remember the song from the movie, Oklahoma?<\/em><\/p>\n

“Oh, What a Beautiful\u00a0Morning,\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"DSCN9834\"<\/a>\u00a0Oh, What a Glorious Day.”\"DSCN9835\"<\/a><\/strong>That is what our morning was like. \u00a0Our road snaked along the Lock Naver \"DSCN9855\"<\/a>with only minor climbing but major views.\"DSCN9870\"<\/a>There was no one around except the sheep that scurried away as we approached. \"photo-2\"<\/a>\u00a0We were surprised to come upon this resident, anxious to talk, tell stories and let us know what to expect on the road ahead.\"DSCN9881\"<\/a>The serene beauty of the loch\"photo\"<\/a> seamlessly changed to the soothing music of the stream.\"DSCN9900\"<\/a>The scenery that surrounded us was difficult to capture, the tranquility amazing,\"photo-6\"<\/a> even as we rolled up and down the hills.\"DSCN9926\"<\/a>The civilization we did encounter, seemed to always be trumped by the sheep.\"DSCN9906\"<\/a>Though many had said how pretty the beach was as the River Naver reached the North Sea, we did not expect ……\"photo-7\"<\/a>anything……\"photo-8\"<\/a>like this.\"photo-9\"<\/a>We slowly climbed up to Bettyhill, that rests at the top of the dramatic mouth to the North Sea. stopping occasionally for a photo\"DSCN9946\"<\/a> and a chat.\"DSCN9955\"<\/a>Still stuffed from last night’s dinner and then our full Scottish breakfast this morning, we skipped lunch in Bettyhill, but could not resist an ice cream. \u00a0No photo because we gobbled them up too fast. \u00a0<\/em>What we did take note of is the wind from the sea coming at us!<\/p>\n

We had been warned of the two steep climbs after BettyHill<\/strong>, that is of course,\u00a0afte<\/em><\/strong>r you climb up<\/strong> to BettyHill. \u00a0<\/strong>We knew it would be bad when we could see our downhill quickly disappearing from view.\"DSCN9967\"<\/a> \u00a0Mile long steep inclines were not what we were expecting\"DSCN9973\"<\/a> and somehow we managed to find two more. \u00a0It took us over an hour to climb the eight miles and four hills with no help from the wind, but with one last drop \"DSCN9983\"<\/a>we reached our village at the bottom of the hill.\"photo-10\"<\/a> \u00a0With nothing really to see here and everything<\/strong> on a hill, we spent the afternoon looking for accommodations for the next couple of days. \u00a0The sparsely populated land, coupled with most B & B’s only having a couple rooms to rent made our search disheartening, at best. \u00a0A break for dinner seemed in order. \u00a0Venison stew again tonight, not quite Mandy’s caliber, but we were happy.\"DSCN9994\"<\/a>A local Scotch nighcap to prepare for tomorrow.\"DSCN0001\"<\/a><\/p>\n\n\t\t