Ross-shire & Sutherland July 2007

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Introduction

For this summer I prepared my walking trip leaving from the West Coast (Poolewe, on Loch Ewe) to the East Coast (Ardgay, on the Dornoch Firth) through Ross-shire and then further northward to the Flow Country of Sutherland for a total walking distance of about 140 miles, all carrying over 55 lbs! (See complete packlist)

An overview of the trip on Google Earth can be found here. (Right click to save the file and open in Google earth)

For each day the elevation profile has been given. The distance on the x-axis of these graphs has been based on track-logs and can slightly deviate from the measured trip distance. Both x-axis and y-axis have been expressed in metres.

Photos of the trip are linked to the photo album; photos of prologue and epilogue are linked to my Flickr pages.

Prologue

Monday July 09

Just like last year the outward journey started with a flight to Newcastle-upon-Tyne, where I had to the occasion to visit a monument of brutalist concrete architecture now threathened with demolition: the Trinity Centre Multi-Storey Car park at Gateshead, know from the film Get Carter starring Michael Caine.
The following morning I took the local train via Carlisle to Glasgow, and made some necessary purchases for underway: oatmeal, gas, tea, etc.
The evening programme also included some social activities.
On the next day, Sunday, I was somewhat stuck in Glasgow, train and bus connections on Sunday being that poor that it would be hardly possible to reach my desired start point. Time therefore for a local exploration of in declined industrial suburbs such as Partick, Govan and Paisley; a splendid atmosphere of urban decay as a contrast with the nature to come...
Stay in Glasgow in Cairncross House, a student home in the west of the city.

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Photograph album