NC500 (ish) 2022

John Lennon used to come on holiday to Durness to stay with his Aunty Lizzie (buried at graveyard we visited yesterday). Apparently the place is part of the inspiration for the Beatles song In My Life. We were discussing how long it must have taken to travel from Liverpool to Durness in the 50s. (Durness is the most north westerly village in mainland Britain) It must have been an interesting journey! Apparently John and Yoko visited in 1969, I’m sure part of the attraction was the Spar. Talking of which here is the photo that Elaine and John took of us in the Spar yesterday. They sent this to our friend Sue to show her that the Durness Spar really does have everything.

Perhaps part of the attraction for John and Yoko was the Sango Sands Oasis bar…..

We met Elaine and John there last night. The pub do a lovely pale ale, I am sure John and Yoko would have enjoyed it.

We had the novel experience of a night without much wind (outside and inside the van) and woke to a dry morning, though the black clouds suggested rain was not far away. Ernie and I had a little joglet to visit the John Lennon memorial gardens. We managed to miss most of the rain and arrived back at the van just as the heavens opened.

Despite the wind it was a beautiful day albeit with a few dark clouds in the horizon. We decide that we would head out for a walk that would take in a mountain…… the mountain in question being Cocoa Mountain. We headed past it in our way down to the beach, Ernie tried to drag us in but we stayed strong. We headed down to the beach past the church that we had visited yesterday.

We head along the beach and headed up a track to a cliff with great views of another beach. It was glorious but sooo windy

We headed back with a spring in our step as we were heading to Cocoa Mountain. Shame we were walking head first into the wind but it helped burn off some calories ahead of the sugar fest to come.

Eventually we got to the mountain

When I was retiring a few people asked me what I would do. One of the things I used to say was to do some detailed research into where you could get the best hot chocolate. Yesterday we found a serous contender for the BEST hot chocolate. However as a scientist I know not to make a conclusion on the basis of one observation, so for the sake of scientific research we had to try another today.

We are happy to report that it is the one of the best hot chocolates ever. We are also happy to report that the white chocolate and raspberry blondie is spectacular. Cocoa mountain also has a shop…..

We headed back to the van for a rest before we venture to the Sango Sands Oasis. It is such a great view from the van, watching the waves and the birds diving into the sea. Just lovely!

As the wind picks up Pat is worrying about the van going over the cliff a la Thelma and Louise. Let’s hope not!