"Gairloch and Up To Rhuba Reidh" Gairloch by nickandchris

Previous page:Poolewe

Next morning we awoke to brilliant blue skies and 20c. We packed up and left our superb camp at Firemore beach and drove back through Poolewe. Heading ever southwards, we realised we had comprehensively covered the whole of the area we had originally planned on seeing and our time was almost up. Our last little area to cover was around Gairloch and as far north as the road went, to the lighthouse at Rhuba Reidh.

As we approached Gairloch, we pulled into a view point and looked down onto the town. It was the largest place we had come across, apart from Ullapool, in all of our holiday, yet is still only a small place that sits attractively on Loch Gairloch. We were quite suprised to note that the caravan site is right in the middle of the town, in amongst houses.

We drove through Gairloch, busy with holiday-makers and feeling distinctly "on the beaten track" after some of the places we had been!! We didn't really fancy the camp site there and continued along the B road, northwards. To cut a long story short, we had no idea where we would be camping, that night and we pulled into a small space (and the only place we could find to park) by a stream, in Melvaig. From here, we unloaded the motorbike and drove to Rhuba Reidh (see tip). Upon our return to the van, a local man, originally from Lancashire and who turned out to be a local councillor, told us we would be fine to camp on the beach at Melvaig, which we did and spent a very pleasant afternoon and night there.

It was that night as the rain closed in on us that we decided the only part of this area we had left to "do" was the road to Red Point, which we would only do if the day was clear and bright. It really wouldn't be worth detouring there if visibility was not good. As it turned out, the next morning was misty and it was raining, so our decision was to call it a day and from here, begin our long journey home.

We had organised our holiday well, seen almost all of what we had intended to and covered practically all of the roads we had planned to explore. We had been away from home for fifteen days, starting from south Cumbria and travelling as far north and east as Bettyhill, gradually making our way westwards and southwards. It had been one of the best holidays we had ever had, the scenery is unrivalled and we can't wait to get back!!

• Pros:Spectacular road to Rhuba Reidh
• Cons:The end of our holiday!!
• In a nutshell:Just felt we were getting back into civilization here,a little.....