Sharvedda Thurso

... who had just completed their Land's End to John O'Groats bike ride and were having a few beers to celebrate. While eating dinner someone put on The Last of the Mohicans on the TV so I stayed in the lounge area with a Strongbow and watched the film before bed.

The English east coast is lined with magical spots where the deep north sea meets the slab reef and churns out some glorious waves. On a rare occasion: when the east coast swell hits, the winds blow gently offshore, the car starts, planets align etc. - some of the breaks can be world class and almost devoid of crowds. Surfing in the era of ever improving neoprene has brought surfing into a new ice age, the never-ending endless summer style search for the perfect wave has expanded ...

... closest to that time wins. I put down 25mins 39secs. Birthday the 25th, age 39. I was just 49 seconds too slow. The winner got spot on. We ate at home but went down to the beech for the barbeque and fire later. Lovely evening but showers took us home early. Friday a lazy day with a short warm up walk to the village hall whilst Audrey got a massage. We had to register for the marathon and get the information we need for start time. Lunch at the Smoo hotel and then a ...

... It said "Tongue 16 miles". Looking on my map, I realised I was no longer 'just north of Inverness', but moreso almost at the northern coast of Scotland. It was starting to get dark, and I wasn't sure about petrol situations etc, so I decided to just turn around in this village and head back the way I came, and back to Inverness. It took about 2 hours which wasn't bad, considering. Oh, and at one stage I thought I was really lost when I saw a sign for Dublin.

... que nada tiene que envidiar al Old Man de Hoy (en las Islas Orcadas). Si pensábamos que lo peor estaba listo en tema de carreteras, estábamos equivocados, porque la carretera que va de Stoer a enlazar con la A894, en concreto el tramo que va desde Nedd a Unapool, es mucho peor. Corresponde a la Escocia muy muy profunda. Por fin se hizo la luz en nuestro camino por hoy al llegar a Kinlochbervie, y lo digo ...

Sveglia necessariamente all'alba per prendere il traghetto per Uig. All'arrivo sull'isola di Sky il tempo continua ad essere brutto e piovoso, prendiamo la strada che ci porta sulla costa est per visitare le scogliere, ma le guardiamo molto in velocità per non inzupparci. Procediamo celeri verso l'entroterra e poi verso nord e Ullapool (con una breve sosta caffè) e quindi fino a Durness. Il pomeriggio è bello che inoltrato e purtroppo tutte le ...

Arriving at John O'Groats were a little bit dismayed to find that the famous sign wasn't there. It turns out that the sign gets removed every evening and a photographer turns up with it at 10am so you can pay for the privilege of having you photo taken under it. We made do with the normal sign on the ferry terminal. We tried to get some food but that wasn't happening till after 10 either so in the end we set off to Thurso. Our ...

Found out my flight details today for leaving UK to get to Indonesia. Went to the doctor and he gave me a prescription for anti-malarials and told me not to catch malaria. I've only been admitted to hospital twice so far with suspected malaria following trips. One month to go till this mountaineering trip - am looking forward to it apprehensively.

... coast with amazing gardens. After a couple of photo stops at picturesque points, we arrived at our hotel in Thurso. It's a lovely hotel in a fly-fishing area next to a river teeming with salmon. Had dinner-white Burgundy, pan fried haddock with soy sauce and veggies-sweet potato and corriander soup (had cirnader husks in-odd texture). Went to the bar for our ...

This morning, our bus stopped at JOHN O GROATS. We were supposed to board a ferry over to the Orkney Islands but the weather was so bad with a boat that sank within the past 24 hours. So our trip for the day was canceled and that seemed to be reason enough for me! We did some souvenir shopping and then left. A woman started crying and complaining about the situation to our guide ...