St Clair Hotel Thurso

... verge repeatedly, sapping energy and morale. <br><br>I'm intrigued by how huge all the animals are out here - cows, sheep, even the flopsy bunnies are all enormous! Must be something in the rain! <br><br>Stopping for tea at the Portland Arms Hotel in Lybster, the lovely barmaid offers me some of their home-made shortbread. It's buttery and very sweet and gives me a much needed energy boost, especially as my right foot is ...

... the rabbits playing in the fading light. An early one for me as it's a long day tomorrow.<br><br>Things that made me smile today:<br><br>The sun coming out<br>Seeing a red deer as I leave the offroad section at Skirza<br>The ease of setting up the tent and using the JetBoil stove. Thanks Robin - they're brilliant!<br>A late night text from a friend checking I'm ok and cheering me on<br>

... Helmsdale scare me. <br><br>Worrying isn't going to help though and I'll just have to take each day as it comes - there aren't any shortcuts! Inspired by a friend who cycled across America and who talked about having specific milestones for every day (alarm going off, getting on the road etc), I decide that as well as milestones I'm going to focus on what makes me smile each day - anything from a silly placename ...

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

... 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 ...

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

... banner and flags up the two big hills at Helmsdale and Berridale. Rain all day until mid afternoon when it cleared. Got quite tired after the two hills and with fifty miles still to go stopped for half an hour for a rest. The last fifty miles were more hilly than I had expected but managed to press on and arrived in sunshine at John o'Groats at 7.50pm welcomed by Sue and the children with the ...

... of us. On arrival we were greeted by the rest of the guys: Kevin, Anthony, Stuart and Chris. After the usual attemot at youth hostel sleep; being subjected to trying to sleep in the same room as 7 other men with all the snoring, ******* etc that entails we managed to dodge miss busybody and all the hoorah Henries that were staying in the hostel and get straight out to John O'Groats for 9am.... Day 0 Miles: 15

... as good a time as I have been having here. I have been shown around the lovely countryside of Northern Scotland and introduced to some fun Scotish traditions. One of which being the Haggis. For those of you who don`t know- Haggis is a very tradional Scotish dish eaten a few times a year and esspecially on Robby Burns night when they celebrate the famous Scotish poet. What is a haggis you ask? Aye should you only be so ...