TENACI. (17/06/14)

I have had an entertaining day. As Graham predicted I could see sod all for the sea fret and once I got away from the coast it was foggy and raining.

I had got about two thirds of the way and just hit the single track when I spotted a Lotus heading my way so gave it a quick flash and pulled into a passing place. It stopped alongside me and he hopped out of the passenger side. It wasn’t a Lotus it was a very posh car; a Spyker. The driver was from northern Europe. We were just past the junction on the A838 to Kinlochbervie. They are upgrading the A838 but to call it an A road does not adequately describe it to anyone but locals. It does have more passing places than a B road, they have C roads as well. The truck fits okay on C roads but they have grass growing on them and no barriers if you are silly enough to try and fire up a fag on a bad corner with a big drop. To anyone south of Inverness the A838 is just a glorified mule track.

He explained he was short of fuel. It doesn’t run on diesel and the only petrol I have is cooking 2star for the gen set. I did suggest to him it might be cheaper to get the car towed rather than pop 2star, Scottish Fuels 2star to boot, into a twin turbo 500bhp V8. He purchased the contents of both my one gallon cans for twenty pounds and away he went. The nearest proper fuel is either Inverness or Fort William. Good luck to him. Even my old van doesn’t enjoy Scottish Fuels or Gleaner which is what they have at infrequent intervals and vast expense round here. I would love a car like it but it is as wide as a truck and probably only does about ten miles to the gallon. I would have left it at home and brought my Range Rover. Dream on Adrian, dream on.

In case you are wondering what the title to this post means it means tenacious. Spyker cars, not Spyker Aircraft company, have a motto. Nulla tenaci invicaest via. It translates : For the tenacious no road is impassable. Silly Dutch folk, they obviously haven’t been here.

We arrived at Sango Sands Durness. We were over a mile away when the dogs woke up had a sniff and started yipping. It is a year since we have been here yet they know where we are. I parked up and went to look for the Frog Orchid.

    First we had to have a look at the beach. It is my second favourite beach. It is the dogs number one, I suspect because it has fresh water flowing into the far corner.Their first port of call was to sample the burn. They then set off along the sand. They even remembered finding a dead seal here and were nonplussed to find it gone. It was behind the second rock to the left in the foreground. They spent ten minutes looking for it and investigating the sand around rocks.

I love autumn for the fungi but I’m getting into the flower business. Little tiny flowers are what I find interesting.

  This isn’t a good picture but it is a Marsh Orchid. We are about as far north as one can get so It’s a Northern Marsh Orchid. It has spots on it’s leaves.

    These ones are different they don’t have acne. I have got a bit boring and have been looking at lots of web sites about orchids. I found one where a really educated anorak had drawn pictures of all the flowers as a guide to identification. I see what he is trying to do but I just get confused with all the Latin names for bits of plants.

     This is a picture I love. It could be an Orchid it looks like one starting out It has tiny oval leaves. There are so many little plants and grasses here and whilst lying down I noticed that the leaves on some things have hairs on and leaves on others have little spikes. My Collins guide doesn’t mention any of this. This is macro at 1:1 so only an inch and a half of the local flora.

    I’m sure enough to present it properly but only 45% sure.

      There are lots of Milfoils. 20% certain . These are really tiny and grow on the limestone here.

  I’m pretty sure, 80%.

Now a drum roll, fanfare of trumpets, the Queen curtseying, the works. I knew it should be about but could I find it. Took two hours to find it.

    It wasn’t where it was last year but I found another two. I’ll go out with the MP-E 65mm for some definitive shots. I know it looks dead but I do know what it is. It is an Orchid in camouflage. 100% right.

There are loads of tiny things to look for here. Scottish Primrose, Sea holly, fern or something I’ll get on, get on looking and watch E-Bay for a knackered Spider. Whoops Spyker. Cosworth would only charge a couple of grand to rebuild a posh Audi V8. Surely it couldn’t cost more? I bet a pond to a shilling it would.

Have fun.