Scotland NC500 – day 6
This article is part of the series “2025-10: Northern Scotland”.
October 18
Annika and I are sitting in the comfortable kitchen of our hosts in Badrallach having breakfast. Cereals – bacon – fried eggs – mushrooms – toast – homemade jam – homemade ketchup – tea. The breakfast is very delicious, but it’s not the main reason we’ve been sitting here for hours. It is the wonderful conversation about life, us, and the wider world that we have with our hosts. Breakfast had long turned into brunch when we finally prepare ourselves to leave.
Behind the house is a pasture with dark, horned sheep. They are curious and all of them are looking at us. In the background lie the mountains and in front of them a narrow strip of blue – the sea loch Little Loch Broom.
Soon we drive over the moorlands of the Scottish Highlands with their intense colours. We haven’t gone far when we make a spontaneous stop at a car park by the sea. It is the small, bright red three-wheeled vehicle with labels such as “coffee” that catches our eyes. The owner is a local and he seems to know all the other customers. The two old ladies just leaving and the man with moustache, who – so he tells me – has worked in the Arctic and Antarctica. While Annika enjoys her hot chocolate I get perhaps the best coffee I’ve ever had. I’m not a big coffee consumer but this stuff is addictive.
As the weather is fine today, we stop at another beach – Mellon Udrigle Beach – where we meet another local playing with his border collie. I take the first and only bath on our Scotland holidays. The water is crystal clear and warmer than expected. It’s a shame I only bathed once.
This day is about the people we meet and it is the only day where we haven’t booked any accommodation. We make a stop in Gairloch, a village that I quickly fall in love with. It is not just the location by the sea or the beautiful houses. Many Scottish villages have that as well. It is the alternative book shop, the community-driven pub, the restaurant with Caribbean food that makes Gairloch special. After we have bought some books we continue our road trip, but we have hardly left the village when we decide to stay there overnight. Annika turns the car, we enter the Gairloch Hotel and the receptionist gives us a big room with a sea view. Later we go to the pub first and then have Caribbean food for dinner. That kind of food matches perfectly the palm trees that grow outside the pub.
