Sutherland - 21st-23rd September
Lairg has an excellent tweed shop which used to have a fine window display. This has now, sadly, been replaced by photographs. Inside you need plenty of money if you want to shop. I suspect my tweed-clad benefactor of the previous evening had been shopping there. Sutherland is full of large hunting, shooting and fishing estates where rich folk from the south come to spend their money on killing things and buying tweed. Last time I was here the camp-site proprietor told me that I could enjoy a good day out, and see how the other half lives, by riding on the post bus for the day while it delivered to all the shooting-lodges and great estates. Looking west over Loch Shin It rained heavily in the night but stopped considerately at 8.00. I dried the tent off and packed up under a sky full of black cloud. Then some blue sky appeared as I set off into a fresh north-west breeze. There were wide views over Loch Shin, but the mountains were still covered in cloud as I cycled up the long a...