Sealed with a kiss

Having rescued us from the teeth of doom on Saturday, the Mansfield Castle continued to look after us very well. A lovely slightly old fashioned hotel, with old fashioned values - just the ticket.

Wall to wall sunshine all day, commencing in the charming borough of Tain, and then out to do battle with the A9 - no pavements and plenty of traffic. We are going to have to watch our step for the next 4 days.

After dragging dad past the entrance to The Glenmorangie distillery, we walked on towards the Dornoch Firth Bridge. You know mum and bridges, well this one is about a mile long. It took dad and I about 20 minutes to cross it, and it took mum about 30. Why? Because there was an osprey overhead and apart from wanting to watch him she wanted to see him dive. Well you can't have everything. Nonetheless she was well pleased.

On the other side we stopped and sat by the the firth for a coffee break and they started reminiscing. Again. This time the topic was Lucozade, which they have begun to drink to give them some energy. Apparently, at one time, way back when, when they were children it was only given as a tonic when you were poorly. Mum said her mum would buy a bottle, and when it was finished, she was sent back to school. Regardless!

On to Dornoch. Another lovely town, with some great architectural features, including the smallest cathedral in Scotland. There we had half our lunch sitting on a bench in the town square, with lots of lovely shade to give us a break from the sun.

Then on to Skelbo where there is the remains of a derelict castle, but more importantly, Fleet Loch, a sea loch renowned for its seals and wildlife. Dad had promised mum a half hour stop here (and the second half of lunch) so that she could have a really good look - how unfortunate then, that the tide was out! Happily there was still plenty to see, particularly a colony of common seals basking on the sand banks. Birds included; oyster catchers, shelducks, curlews and lots of seagulls (she's not very good with those). What a happy mum.

Just 2 miles to finish back at the A9, ready to restart in the morning.

We are in to our final week. It's not an easy week and if you can find the time, it would be brilliant if as many of you as possible could log in each day. The thought that you are all reading the blog gives the three of us great pleasure and your support would be so much appreciated.

Keep logging in!

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