We woke to spectacular views of the bay out of our windows – although, unfortunately, it was a lot greyer than yesterday. Four fellow LEJOG-ers joined us at breakfast, all keenly looking forward to their last day of the ride.
We were the first on our bike, and were soon on our way up and down the coastal road towards Thurso. There were lovely views across farm land to the sea, although not particularly good weather.
Sadly, the light drizzle was accompanied with an annoying head/cross wind. This did not stop us powering forward at a good speed knowing that we only had a short ride to the finish line.
Smiling and waving at various groups of riders heading the other way, we soon arrived at Thurso where we managed to find lunch (and the best sticky-toffee pudding we have had on our trip). We watched one of the LEJOG-ers pass our window as we ate.
We were quickly back on our way, stopping briefly to photograph our bike-computer as we reached 1000 miles (Simon prematurely photographed 999.99 miles). Given the increasingly heavy rain and the head wind, we decided against a 10 mile side trip to Dunnet Head (the actual northernmost point on the UK mainland). This is a possibility for tomorrow if the weather improves.
Our final LEJOG argument was over Brittany's urge to pop into Castle Mey, the Queen Mother's Scottish retreat, about 7 miles before John o'Groats. Simon was quite keen to just cross the finish line at this stage. It was a very pretty Castle with wonderful views across towards the Orkneys – but the one-way exit to the Castle added another 4 miles (Brittany would have gone back the way we came, but Simon insisted on following the rules).
We arrived at John o'Groats before 3:00 and after some quick photo's before the 'finish line' (next to the long-closed, decrepit John o'Groats Hotel) we took refuge in the Journey's End café. We chatted with a few other cyclists who had just finished and got our trip sheet stamped.
No comments:
Post a Comment