The ride from Altnaharra up to the coast at Bettyhill was a lovely rolling ride for tired legs, but once we turned East towards John O'Groats, we hit a fierce headwind from the South East. Having been remarkably lucky with the wind (and indeed the weather in general so far) it seems a bit churlish to complain, but it did make what I'd thought would be an enjoyable ride along the coast into something of a grim grind.
Seeing the open sea again was a cheering sight though, and the sight of the first milepost to John O'Groats (37 miles) made me grin. We passed a number of pannier-laden cyclists, and enjoyed speculating on whether they were embarking on our journey in the opposite direction or not, and whether we were impressed or just felt sympathy...
We'd hoped to have a look at Dunnet's
Head, the most Northerly point of Britain, but our slow progress meant that we didn't have time, so we pushed on. Five miles from the end, we saw the peninsula of John O'Groats, shrouded in cloud. Somehow it seemed an appropriate atmosphere to finish in, and after stopping to put our rain jackets on, we entered the cloud. Finally we saw the sign for John O'Groats, stopped for a quick photograph, and then pushed on to the harbour. We were probably there for five minutes - it was a pretty bleak sight in the mist.
That was enough for us, and we'd seen the hotel up the road had a bar - so after 858.25 miles, we went there for a drink to toast the completion of our journey. That was nearly as welcome as the news that Oxford United won their first game of the season.
Right - I'm running out of time. There's lots of things that I should tell you about our journey, but they'll have to wait. I'm looking forward to seeing you all soon!
3 comments:
well done guys! Will have a proper look at pics etc when have time.
you can just about see Orkney through those clouds.....
M
you can just about see Orkney through those clouds.....
M
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