John O’Groats and Dunnet

It was around 120 miles from where I was camped on the Black Isle, up the A9 and A99 to John O'Groats. The weather had turned a little cooler while remaining bright; the further North I travelled the stronger the winds, or so it seemed. The A9 is a fast road and while traffic near Inverness was relatively busy, despite my early start, it quickly thinned out. The landscape lacked the dramatics of the mountains and valleys of the West, but neverthless had its own charm with lots of bright yellow broom/gorse peppering the landscape with splashes of colour and some interesting sections of curve and hill. Tain provided a fuel stop with a decent sized Tesco. Blasting passed Glenmorangie without a hint of a snifter, I stopped at Golspie and took lunch at the Coffee Bothy to thaw myself out over a pot of tea and a bacon and egg roll. Holiday calories don't count, right? Onwards passed Dunrobin castle and gardens to a stretch of coastline with some nice looking beaches, and finally onto the A99 through Wick and to the final section, which if I'm honest became bleaker and bleaker with each passing mile. On reaching John O'Groats you quickly realise this is a place with notoriety for its location but actually very little here. There are a few guest houses, eateries and a large car park which affords an opportunity to do the obligatory photographs next to the sign post looking out to the Orkney Islands to the North. There was a lot of wind and I didn't wait around too long before heading West 10-15 miles along the top of the UK to Dunnet Bay camp site for an entertaining session putting up the tent while it tried to be a kite. Dunnet Bay itself is a lovely stretch of sand and I had a walk as sunset approached. That night was difficult to sleep through with constant flapping noise, rain hammering against canvas and it was also fairly cold dipping down to about 5 degrees c at around 3-4am which was just within range of my sleeping bag and air mat. The tight fitting thermals I brought along were proving their worth!