Ever driven 500 miles with your fingers crossed? We have – well, at least metaphorically speaking!
We've been on a quest to visit the extreme points of the UK: north, south, east and west. The northern tip of Shetland, the southernmost rocks of the Scillies and Lowestoft Ness have all been ticked off – the fourth point, the west, was always going to be something of a gamble.
Actually, the farthest point west in the UK is Rockall, but you certainly can't get there. The most reachable point in that direction is the archipelago of St Kilda. And it's beyond the Outer Hebrides, 50 miles out in the Atlantic Ocean. Small boats do get to St Kilda, but that crossing is weather dependent. We made it – just about – but more of that later.
Somewhere along the line we had decided our project should also include the extreme points of mainland UK and so on this trip our first target was the Ardnamurchan peninsula, a long finger of land projecting above the island of Mull. Overnights in Moffat and Glencoe had us on the Corran Ferry across Loch Linnhe south of Fort William.
From there the single-track road heading due west into the peninsula, skirting the seaweed-garlanded shores of Loch Sunart, is truly a little piece of heaven on earth, if you can apply that epithet to a road. We were lucky
