Forss House Hotel Thurso

... cake and tea - "Will you not be having another cake Charlie?" If you insist!

An inspection of my right foot reveals a two-inch blood blister all down one side! That'll make the going easier...

What made me smile today:

Sunshine
The nice barmaid at The Portland Arms
Their delicious shortbread
The names of the villages - Thrumster, Occumster and Lybster. Must be because they are Norse!

... John O'Groats - honest!

Duncansby Head, two miles to the east of J O'G, is actually the most extreme tip of the UK (and Dunnet Head is actually the most northerly point) and I head along the coastal path to the lighthouse there so that I can say I've "done" the whole journey! It's a wild spot with steep cliffs, screaming birds and swirling winds. For some reason I ignore my book ...

There can't be many people who've started their John O'Groats to Land's End journey (JOGLE for the uninitiated) by spending the night before heading to the start at an '80s party with two Adam Ants, Batman and Batwoman, Freddie Mercury, a Rubik's cube and a Falklands battleship! Thanks to the RAF Kinloss Mountain Rescue team for the best party in a garage that I've ever been to!

Getting to John O'Groats is a ...

... the sun only having risen at 10. Kirkwall is on the 59 degrees north- same as St Petersburgh. This means they get midnight sun- til about 12:30am, it rises again at about 3am in the summer. The also get northern lights in the winter which i guess makes up a little for the lack of sun. Interestingly, despite the chilly air there is not much frost- most of the Oarkenys are too close to the coast and the gulf stream tends to carry any frost away.

... it takes a lot longer at the level crossing than waiting for a train).

Despite thinking we might be cutting it a bit fine, we managed to pull into Freswick at about 7:30pm- still well over an hour of daylight left- gotta love the far noth! Our B&B has very cute attic windows and a lovely view, being quite secluded. However; B's planning isn't quite as good as she thought and we seem to have ended up in a room without an ensuite...

... quasi-polar bear territory.

As a newcomer to this cold-water surf scene the term ‘ice-cream headache’ never really entered my consciousness. The water would be heinously cold were you to swim barefoot - so you wear booties, which can feel like water balloons while you’re paddling out past the shore dump in water temps that literally wiped out the titanic passengers. Maybe in the future scientists will find a gene in seal DNA that prevents humans from ...

... and thought maybe I could treat myself at some point. Then I remembered how much I'd spent on all the kit I was carrying with me that was slowing me down. No B&B's yet!

Chatted to a girl at the campsite who had just finished the trip from Land's End in 2 weeks and 2 days. Wow. I'm going for the more leisurely approach. And the scenic route. Why not, I've got the time to spare. There, that's my excuses done!

Time to get a move on.

... 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.

... t feeling well. We climbed down and stuck our hands into the North Sea. Next, we went to a Broch (Iron Age remains). All that was left was four-foot wall and a bunch of slugs. Someone, in 1895, set up a shrine or sorts to themselves. Interesting. We had a light snack and tea at the House, then retired. The bath tub was plugged (literally, not turned on) so we couldn't bathe. That was really cute.