Day 9  Portgower to Delnies Woods  77 Miles    Total  542 Miles

By morning the weather had improved a bit:  the rain had mostly stopped and there were blinks of sun.  Time for a short walk with the dogs in Portgower before we set off, homeward bound.

This part of the route is more familiar to us and the A9 road is much improved.  Gone were the single track roads, now we were in a race track with cars and vans and lorries. Past Golspie with Dunrobin Castle and the infamous hilltop monument of the Duke of Sutherland on Ben Bhraggie, over the Dornoch Bridge and past Invergordon and Alness.   We stopped but twice:  once to let Mary vist a delightful wool shop, Kincraig Fabrics,  in Brora which Ina had recommended, and then for a sumptuous lunch at the Storehouse Restaurant (a regular stopping place for us on previous visits to the area. It is located on the shores of the Cromarty Firth, very near to the long Cromarty Bridge.

We noted our milage as we passed Delnies Woods, our starting place: 542 miles.  The round trip from here to Inverness Castle (the “official” starting point of the NC 500) is 15 miles, so our journey on the NC 500 was a grand total of 527 miles.

Then it was homeward on well kent roads, reflecting on our experiences as we drove round  the North Coast.

 

 

If you would like to see more pictures of our road trip round the NC 500 you can see them on my Flickr page:   CLICK HERE