Pentland 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!

... the rabbits playing in the fading light. An early one for me as it's a long day tomorrow.

Things that made me smile today:

The sun coming out
Seeing a red deer as I leave the offroad section at Skirza
The ease of setting up the tent and using the JetBoil stove. Thanks Robin - they're brilliant!
A late night text from a friend checking I'm ok and cheering me on

... in itself. There is no direct bus from Inverness and the quickest route seems to involve a slow bus to Wick and then another even slower bus (from the other side of Wick, of course!) to J O'G itself. Gazing out of the window I try to take in some of the landscapes I'll be walking over the next week and ponder why on earth I thought this was a good idea! The narrowness of the A99 and the twists and turns north ...

... The civilisation is remarkably advanced given that this was before the pyramides. There are also a few sets of standing stones (current theory is one for the moon cycle and one for the sun) on the island, which are huge. most of them have been re-erected in about 1906- apparantly it only takes about 8 men and a huge wedge thing to lift them even though some stones are several ton. Currently there are a whole bunch of archaeologists digging ...

We have managed to hit the great majority of Scotland today, as we drove from Ediburgh in the South (Edinburgh is to Scotland a bit like Brisbane is to Queensland), through Fort William in the West to Inverness in the East and up to Freswick (near John O'Groats) in the North. Start time was about 9am and we finished up at about 7:30 having covered rather a lot of ground.

The day didn't start particularly well (but did improve, along with ...

... the most riveting of lectures. Our lecture theatre has the fatal flaw of providing free wireless internet to all students with a laptop – and thus access to magicseaweed. There was a seductive area of red circling towards North Scotland - the perfect swell! After 17 hours on a train and 3 hours sleep we found Thurso, perpetual lines of swell pumping from the horizon, breaking mechanically on the reef below. Our escapade north had paid off! We suited and booted and paddled ...

There's something amazing about knowing that you have everything you need to survive with you. I have clothes, food, shelter and transport. What more do I need?

There's something a little bit less amazing about having all that stuff with you when you try to get it on and off several busy trains. Why did I bring so much stuff??

Train ride up was fairly uneventful, it just took a long time. I always thought that Inverness was a long way North ...

... and flags at the finish line. Total distance travelled on day 7 was 139.75 miles. Toal distance from Land's End was 906.52 miles and the total time spent cycling over the seven days was 67.47 hours. After celebrating at John O'Groats cycled the 2.5 miles to the Hostel with Sue and the children following behind in the car. Spent seven days eating continuously....three cooked meals a day and ...

... to put our bikes in a carriage that wasn't going to be used during the journey as none of the platforms were long enough for 4 carriages (and boy they weren't...some of them were only 2 slabs on a bit of grass)...no sooner had we got seats on the train (more difficult than you would imagine as the wrong reservation cards had been put on every seat) than we all had to get off again as there had been a fire ...

... to walk. I feel like I am in a car wash on constant rinse cycle. 18 miles of horizontal rain to look forward to. I met Mark Allison who started his 'run' from John O'Groats to Lands end on the same day as me. (He arrived at Lands End on the 12th August http://www.justgiving.com/markallison) Taking a break at a small shop for a cuppa and a chance to stand in the ...