The North Coast. And the Universe...

Hi all.

I am in Tongue, just in the North coast of Scotland. From here, just four days more of easy walking to Dunnet Head.

It is great to have arrived up here. I feel like almost finished, which not being too optimistic as I have actually crossed the whole Britain walking now :)

Loch Achall

From Ullapool I was thinking that I would make it to Tongue in 4 days, walking through an area where there is.... nothing. That was a bit worrying, or to be more accurate, I was feeling I did not want to go through it, because that would mean doing wild camping, and I did not want more of it, no more bloody midges, no more damp wet, no more branch or pebble right under my back.
It actually took 3 days.

Boat House at Loch Achall

From Ullapool I took the track that went East by Loch Achall and Glen Achall. Nice place surrounded by low hills. I met a few fishermen. It was a calm day and I could some reflection pics by the loch.

The track would eventually became a path Northeast bound, and back to another track a bit later. After leaving the path, I continued walking through more heather moorland, crossed a few streams, and got temporally trapped in bog; I washed my boots a legs in the next atream.

I was IN the stream, getting my boots and legs clean!

I noticed that the landscape is slightly different up here. Still boggy hills, but there are less conifer woods, and some of the woods are non-conifer type of trees.

I went down the track towards Oykel Bridge without knowing if I would find a place to stay, call it camp site, B&B,... you name it, something non wild camping! A few Tornados fly passed me.

Once in Oykel bridge I was lucky enough to meet River and his daughter and son , David and Song. The told me there was a B&B 6 miles away and that they could give a lift there. The place was in Rosehall. Just a few houses and a small hotel. The B&B, Woodlands, was just 20 minutes walk from the village, and was nice a cheap. After shower I went to the hotel for a pint and a meal. I walked back to the B&B in complete darkness, as I had forgotten my torch.

The next day I was supposed to walk right back to Oykel Bridge (west), or get a lift, and continue my walk form there. But, having a look a t the map, I discovered a small road, starting just form Rosehall, that would take me North, towards I wanted to go. So I took that road.

Wet spider webs everywhere!

It was a fresh misty morning and it looked like the fog would disappear later and I would get some sun. I follow the narrow road by river Cassley. The sun came out, but briefly, and eventually I had some drizzle in the day.

Fisherman in River Cassley

Glen Cassley is once again a wide shallow valley. Fishermen, highland cows and a hot spot for deers as well. I saw a herd of at least 30 or 40 of them, too far for making any good picture.
The narrow road eventually became a track, still following the same river, and later reached a power station, where I stopped for lunch.

Glen Cassley; I really like this pic.

I have found lots of small power station in the last couple of weeks, using the never ending water resource up here in Scotland; there are streams everywhere.


After lunch, I continue to walk in the same track, but in a Northeast direction looking for Loch Shin. In a drizzle, I reached a ridge that overlooked Loch Shin and a green valley with Ben Klibreck at the back of it. It was a special sight because of the clouds that make shadows and light patches in the distant landscape.

There are dozens of "PASSING PLACE" signs in the narrow roads I am walking

I could also see the road that was supposed to be Wednesday destination, at the other side of Loch Shin where I was hopping to find a place to sleep. The way to the road felt much longer than it looked like. Once in the road I knocked in the first door I found to ask about accommodation. They mentioned the Overscaig hotel, and said that they used to have a bunk house; that meant cheap.

Loch Shin Valley. Impressive sky, with Ben Klibreck as background

However, in Ullapool, I had checked how my Premium Bonds were doing, and knew that in August I won..... £50!!!! So, if I had to have a luxury for a night, not a problem. And that is what happened. No Bunk house but beautiful single room at Overscaig hotel.

Ben Hope under the cloud, in a rather decent day.

I was two days away from Tongue, where I had a bed booked for Friday and Saturday night. looking at the maps, I learned that doing the distance to Tongue in one day was kind of "doable".
So I decided to try.

Gobernuisbach state was surrounded by a forest and nice mountains.

I started walking at 9:30 after booking Thursday night in Tongue hostel. Two hours to west Merkland, walking in sandals, no problem. Then I put the boots on for the walk in the track, that took me up the hill following Allt a' Chraois, a valley that took me to Allnabad, through Gobernuisbach state, a group of hoouses that I might have had a look to buy, if I had been a bit luckier with my premium bonds...



I stopped for lunch, and swapped the boots for the sandals, as I had to walk on a narrow road again. I was just half way, and I had been 6 hours walking. I knew it was going to be tough, but I just kept thinking in how nice and soft my bed would be that night...
I follow the road North, passing by Ben Hope and his impressive pillars, and then walked along Loch hope to reach the A838, just at the North Coast of Scotland. I stopped again for some food and water. My right food was feeling very sore, and I was thinking I had a big blister on its sole. 8 miles to go. It was more than 8 pm. I was going to walk in the dark, but the really bad thing that made me rush the last bit of walk was thinking on a closed hostel, so that I would have to pitch my tent in front of the main door... what a joke after almost 60 Km walk.

The bad part is underneath...

I walked the last 8 miles in 130 minutes. Back, arse, feet, hips and legs in pain, specially my right foot, but I made it to the hostel, and it was not closed. PLeasure shower, pleasure meal and pleasure sleep, after 12 hours and almost 60 km walk.

Tongue hostel

Tongue hostel is just great: for just £13 you get a very tidy and clean place to stay. And Hanne was very nice and invited me for an extra piece of home made banana and chocolate chips cake as I had done such a long walk in one day!!. Hostle grounds finishes just in the cliff that overlooks Tongue Bay and the Rabbit Islands.

On Friday, yesterday, I had one of the most lazy days of my life. I got up and after breakfast I went for walked, very slowly (las muniecas de famosa se dirigen al portal....) to tongue village. Bought a couple of newspapers and a magazine, had a beer (at noon... worrying...) and went back to the hostel for a bit of reading, made some pictures, some more reading, first siesta of the day, lunch, more reading, second siesta.... back on my bed, some more people arrived to the bunk room: Ross, who had just begun cycling from John O'Groats towards Land's End, and George, a local that was in the hostel for the weekend to hike some of the surrounding Bens with his cousin Lorraine.

Ben Loyal (left) and Ben Hope (right). And fields around Kyle of Tongue.

Today, Lorraine and George kindly gave me a lift to Bettyhill, where I will be walking tomorrow (is in the way to Dunnet head). I came here looking for a place with Internet, and I found it. The place I should say, is gorgeous, hills and sandy beaches. I should not leave this place without a swim in the sea.... if I have the guts, the water must be freezing.

Nice George and Lorraine

Next time you hear from me I will be done, I will have finished the walk. I will be in Thurso, with Karen.

Me. Kyle of Tongue and Rabbit Islands at the background.


And now, a brief note about something very important that is about to happen. On Wednesday the tenth, August 2008, I finish my walk. Also, England plays Croatia (yes, Croatia is the new Germany).

But more, actually, much more importantly, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is switched on.
This is a 27 Km long machine, the most expensive and most complicated one ever built by mankind, by far. No company or country could have undertaken the vast challenge of building this machine alone. So 111 countries united efforts to make it a reality.

The LHC is basically a long tunnel where sub-atomic (protons) particles are accelerated to speeds very, very, very close to speed of light (99.9999999% of speed of light on this one). Then, you smash them in a head to head crash, and "see" what the resulting debris are. They are expecting to find things like the Higgs Bossom or "Good particle" thought to have existed sometime within the first second of the universe almost 14.000 million years ago. This particle is thought to give mass to everything in the universe.
Apart from the Higgs particle, they might find baby black holes, and parallel dimensions... some think one of those black holes will shallow Geneva, or the whole earth; some serious Physicists said otherwise...

Anyway, this could be the most exciting scientific experiment of all time. It could lead to a "theory of everything", to a total and overall understanding to everything that happens in the universe, including where the hell is the 90% invisible matter that forms the universe!

The "Big Switch On" this Wednesday (broad casted live in radio 4 and eurovision) will not lead to a discovery on that very day. They need to fine tune the machine, and after interpreting the vast amount of data that each collision will create, we might begin to have some results in the beginning of 2009.

It might happen that this highly energetic collisions does not lead to any discovery, no Higgs particle, no dark matter..... which would mean that the Physics theory developed in the last decades, is all wrong, and we would have the best minds of our times, lost, and with no other chance but looking for a completely new point of view, to basically everything!!

The LHC, is not only a tunnel. The way you "look" at the debris you create, requires detectors. But the word detector takes a new definition here. They are massive!! Each one weight a few hundred tons, and a few hundred scientists work in each one. Can you imagine the complexity? There are six of them, placed in different places of the 27 km ring, and each of them look at different things happening in the collisions.

For building the machine they had to freeze some underground rivers, and took 8 years to build the magnet that will keep the ionized particles travelling at the speed of light on their track to a collision that will reproduce almost Big Bang conditions. The filaments that form the magnet, that has to be cooled down to -272C (1C above absolute zero), could stretch from here to the sun.

etc, etc, etc....

Wars, famine....
Well, I think the LHC is a good reason to be proud of being part of mankind. Unbelievable what we can achieve together!!

All the best, and if you see a baby black hole, it's not worth running, it will swallow you... :)


Carlos