On day two we headed out towards Ardnamurchan to enjoy some coastal routes.
In the morning we walked to an abandoned crofting village called Simirisary and then on over the hills to a beautiful white beach looking across to Eilean Coille and other small islands.
Our hearts sank when we got our first view of the village and the flock of sheep happily grazing amongst the old buildings. Fat chance of ‘Brother Biggles’ sticking to his vow of silence. Actually, we’d have been fine if those darn sheep had just stood still. But they bolted and our Beagles went ballistic! Biggles was so outraged he kept his woofer turned to eleven for the rest of the day.
The road-less village has long since been abandoned but many of the ruined cottages have been restored for use as holiday cottages.
The path from the village to the beach is really quite dramatic – it takes you through bogs, across streams and along a cliff edge before descending to a lovely secluded beach. The only other way to get to the beach is by boat.
Beanie and Biggles explored every nook and cranny of the beach:
Searched for crabs in the rock pools:
And STILL the recently ex-communicated Brother Biggles was mouthing off about those sheep:
After lunch we set off on a 10k run to another secluded beach. This time the route itself wasn’t as spectacular – a little section beside a loch then along a bog standard forest track. It did however take us into an area known to contain unexploded WWII munitions; we passed a couple of big red warning signs cautioning us not to disturb any metal objects we might find. Beanie & Biggles of course couldn’t read the signs but that was just as well, because telling a Beagle not to do something is a sure way of getting them to do it as an act of defiance.
Against all odds we made it to the beach without getting blown up. The beach is called ‘Singing Sands’ due to the low frequency sound that is generated when you shuffle your feet along the beach. Even on a dull day it has the feel of a tropical island. Beautiful white sand, lovely blue-green sea and white frothy waves crashing on the beach.
Here’s a short video clip of the run. We actually look more ‘spritely’ than we felt in this video. The previous day’s hill climb had really taken it’s toll on our poor old legs!