To Thurso by train

Getting ourselves off the Mull of Kintyre  is a bit of scramble, even though we've packed the night before. Having one hand splinted slows me down, and Peter spends a lot of time looking for his razor, which had slid off the shelf where he'd put it when we were rolling in Loch Ness. We also have to fill in incident reports for our respective accidents. We get our luggage off the boat not too long after the 8:30 deadline, then repair to Caley Cruisers lounge and Briefing Room to fill in the forms and in theory to have a coffee, but the machine there defeats us. We return the forms to the Office and they call us a cab to go to Inverness station.

It's another great train trip to Thurso. We board in plenty of time to secure seats on the right hand side of the train - this is another line that hugs the coast for most of the way. The scenery is so varied; lush green sheep-dotted meadows and yellow fields of recently harvested crops in the valleys and along the edges of the Firths, trees lining the tracks so closely that they brush the sides of the train, steep hillsides bare of trees, churches, castles, a huge cruise ship, beaches, both shingle and sand. It will be a pleasure to do it again tomorrow.

All the photos taken through the train windows, hence the slight reflections. 

Woodland

Fields

Sandy beach

Shingle beach

We pass through many small stations with names like Scotscalder, Brora, Gorgesmas, Dunrobin Castle. They all look like the station from my brothers' Hornby train set, except that most are stone. We stop at about half of them, the rest are request stops, mostly un-requested.

Dinky station with trompe l'oeil

On arrival in Thurso we trundle our suitcases to the Manor House Hotel and check in. Google has helped Peter to ascertain that there is a laundrette in in easy walking distance, so that's our next stop. While our washing is on we eat a sandwich lunch in a cafe, and we find our way to the sea while waiting for the dryer. In the distance we think we can see Hoy, the southwestern end of the Orkney Islands, which COVID stopped us from visiting on our last overseas trip in 2020.

Ancient ruined church in Thurso

Ruined castle in Thurso

Washing is returned to our room, we have a break, then do more exploring of Thurso until its time for an excellent dinner back at the hotel. Now ready to call it a day.

Looking downriver to the sea

Looking upriver