Day 107 Wick to Thurso

 

 Date: Monday 23^rd July 2012   Distance: 41.38 Miles

 

Breakfast was much nicer than expected. Our room was up several flights of stairs but it was brought up by the chef himself with friendly service. It was a grey morning and we were off by 9.

 

Not far from Wick on the A99 we passed an upside down car in a field. Emergency services were still there. Cars drive very fast down these roads and it is sobering to think how vulnerable we are.

 

We passed Castle Sinclair- not open to public and then sand-dunes with subsea works adjoining them. Next there was barren land where fire had stripped the gorse and peat.

 

John o Groats, Britain’s most northerly village (Actually Dunnet Head is 2 miles nearer the Arctic Circle) seemed to have had a bit of a face lift. Wooden holiday homes, built open plan with an angled wall of window looking out to sea might give the occupants views of the Northern Lights later in the year. It was fairly quiet on the tourist front with the odd cyclist completing their 2 or 3 week trek.

 

There were lovely views to Orkney for quite a lot of the morning but the sea was slate grey and the wind blew against us out towards Mey. We stopped at the Queen Mother’s Castle for lunch. We admired its position right on the coast though it looked out of place among the fairly modern typical white low chalet style housing sparsely sprinkled round about. We hadn’t time for a proper visit and pushed on taking the car exit route which went right by the coast. We had to pedal down hills as the wind was so strong.

 

There were sand-dunes and then a huge surfing beach just before Castletown, very different from the rest of the coastline. There had been 45 degree strata of igneous rock exposed by the sea and this was in stark contrast.

 

We had intended to go up to Dunnet Head but the wind made progress so slow so we gave it a miss (we’d found the rare Scottish primrose there in 2005) My bottom seemed to be feeling the miles already and I walked to ease the discomfort. I cleared the road of some jagged pieces of wood aware that the speed of the traffic could turn them into terrible missiles. Generally there wasn’t much litter though.

 

 

 

We slowly approached Thurso. After checking in at the Park Hotel- more a sort of motel- we took our washing to Thurso’s laundrette. It was really closed but as the lady who works there was using the machines herself she said she would kindly do our washing for us. As she was brought up in Rhodesia she didn’t have a Scottish accent( we didn’t hear it that much all fortnight, especially in the B and Bs) she was really interested in our trip and seemed to enjoy chatting.

 

We went to the bike shop to find a more comfortable saddle. I’d bought a gel shape to go inside my trousers at Inverness but that kept slipping and caused more rubbing. They were fantastic in the shop. The manager took off the saddle of a hire bike and said I could try it and send it back if I didn’t like it. When pressed he said it would be £10. However I didn’t fit it anyway but their helpfulness was remembered and used later on in the week further round the coast. He was right though as he said I would just have to grin and bear it till I hardened up. I did!

 

Back at the hotel we had a lovely dinner with lots of fresh vegetables. There was however a very noisy funeral party that see