St Clair Arms Hotel Thurso

It rains on and off all night and I awake to a sodden tent and a damp sleeping bag where I must have rolled into the side. Great! Luckily the rain clears and the skies brighten, enabling me to dry my tent off on the outside of my pack.<br><br>Today's trek down the A99 is painfully slow. The landscape is quite bleak out here and the flow of traffic, much of it large lorries and motor homes, means jumping on and off the ...

A sodden, grey landscape awaits me. The Orkneys are now shrouded in mist and drizzle coats the windows. Thank goodness I took photos of J O'G last night! Five cyclists preparing for their big departure agree to take the obligatory photos of me by the signpost. Except the "official" photographer isn't around so there is no signage for the signpost and I could be anywhere... I did leave ...

... 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 ...

... We were very lucky and picked up tickets on a coach tour of the Mainland island in search of ancient Orcadians. Skara Brae is the oldest and most complete Neolithic site in Europe and with standing stones and circles, we addressed ancient Orkney. For me it was the trip across beautiful smooth landscape and vistas of slate colored water that made the day. Did I tell you that Orkney is beautiful?<br> I have to stop now and get this thing edited and posted.<br> <br> <br> <br>

... getting some brekky, even if none were Puffins. We got picked up for our coach tour from the ferry terminal, we seemed to be the youngest on our tour by quite a way, and you know you're in the UK when someone on the trip brings a dog and no one bats an eyelid. The Orcadians don't really see themselves as Scottish- they used to belong to Norway (and indeed St Magnus Cathedral in Krikwall was started under Catholic Norwegian rule and added to ...

... it takes a lot longer at the level crossing than waiting for a train). <br><br>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&amp;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...

The yacht did great time in crossing the North Sea. The weather was good, for the North Sea, and we arrived in Kirkwall several hours earlier than expected&#8212;we midmorning. This is great news for the crew who has to prepare for guests arriving this afternoon. <br><br>Stee and I had a chance to wander Kirkwall before our guests arrived and too the opportunity to get out of the crew's way while they prepared for our guests to arrive.<br><br><br>Guest Arrivals and a Cocktail ...

... through the ice-melt river taking us straight to the take off point. Pat caught one straight off, expertly taking off behind the peak on his backhand and paddling back with a his trademark smug grin. My 5/3 was hopelessly ineffective, but adrenaline has a knack getting the blood flowing. Much hooting ensued as surfers flew down the glassy faces, sending spray skyward. If you sat down and designed the perfect right-hand reef break you couldn&#8217;t do much better than this ...

... orange colour. On arrival I immediately remembered why I hadn't been in a Scottish youth hostel for almost 20 years...it was as it has always been; grumpy 50 something women running the show, sheet sleeping bags, lights out and all sorts of other inane rules. As we knew we would be too late for the pub we got a couple of cans for our arrival but had to sneakily gulp them down incase miss busy body caught ...

I am still in Scotland at the moment, but I will be leaving very soon, and very sad to be ending the European adventure. Though of course looking forward to seeing and being with family and friends in the U.S. for holidays! We have been busy trying to firm up plans for whats next. Stay tuned as they aren`t quite finalized! Though we do know that Craig will be coming to Minnesota in Jan. and hopefully we will be able to show ...