We got up earlier than normal so we could figure out our flat tire issue ASAP. In theory, we needed to be out of our airbnb by 10am, but the hosts were really understanding of our situation and told us there was 'no rush'. We didn't really know what to do about a flat tire (the joys of travelling in a different country), so the first thing Paul did was call the rental company when they opened at 8am. They were super duper helpful and polite and handled everything for us very efficiently.
I feel like if this happened in America, there would be a lot of: waiting on the phone, talking to multiple people, calling a tow truck, sitting around in a mechanic shop all day long, etc. But here? One call to the rental company, and they found a local mechanic who came out to US instead of having us pay for a tow truck. He took the tire off of our car, put it in his truck, and told us he was going to work as fast as possible to get us back on the road. One hour later, he was pulling back in the driveway and putting on a new tire for us. And that was it. Just one hour, and we were sitting on a comfy couch drinking our morning coffee for that whole time. We were impressed!
So we were barely behind schedule and off on our North Coast 500 scenic drive. It was incredibly beautiful. There is only so much 'oohs' and 'ahhs' you can do before it's almost like it's "too beautiful" and your eyes and brain get tired from all the beauty. If that makes sense. We highly recommend doing the North Coast 500 scenic drive in Scotland. But please don't do that in a caravan/camper, because the road is one narrow lane and everyone gets annoyed letting those large vehicles squeeze by. They really slow things down.
Speaking of rain, this was the first time it was pouring pretty hard instead of just drizzling, and that was kinda a bummer. The clouds were super low and were covering up the mountains all around us. We could tell that it was super beautiful under the rain and clouds, but it wasn't as easy to enjoy the views anymore.
We stopped at Balnakeil Beach, another of Scotland's stunningly beautiful white beaches, and walked a bit of it in the rain. It was still lovely, despite the weather.
Then it was off to our airbnb, which has amazing views out the front door of mountains and a beautiful loch. After we ate dinner (yummy steak and haggis pies...SOOOO good!) at our airbnb, the rain finally stopped, so we decided to walk 1.5 miles away to some castle ruins and manor ruins which are right next to each other.
The Calda House, a mansion built in the 1700s, almost instantly bankrupted the folks who built it, and the locals didn't want a rival clan to buy it, so the locals looted and burned the mansion to the ground. And Ardvreck Castle was built around 1490 and was pretty small. However, a rival clan still wanted it, despite the small size, and it was attacked and ruined in the late 1600s.
So apparently there's lots of rival-clan-history going on up here, and it would have been fun to learn if they still think in terms of clans or not. I didn't want to bother the locals with that sort of sensitive subject, of course.
On our walk to the ruins, we saw a bajillion deer. They are everywhere up here. And they like to pose for the perfect photos, which was too tempting to Paul and he got some amazing pictures with them. After letting Paul pretend he was a professional nature photographer for a while, we walked back to our place and crashed.
This whole area (the Assynt area) of Scotland is very wild and beautiful, and Paul and I already wish we were staying here for another week (or forever!). This was the wilds we were looking for! It's incredible.
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