JOHN O'GROATS - THE END

After an interesting evening and breakfast chatting with the German proprietor of Jutta's b&b, I set off through Helmsdale for the final leg of the journey to John O'Groats.

Being warned about a few beast climbs out of Helmsdale, I scaled them without too much difficulty and with a clear day, enjoyed views out to the north sea. A relatively sparsely populated part of scotland, human activity mainly consists of farmland and quite a few derelict old farmsteads and crofts.

I passed through Wick, but eager to press on, after some short stops to refuel, I continued cycling and finally arrived at JOG at around 2pm, some 55 miles from Helmsdale and 857 from Lands End. Of course, without my cycle computer it is impossible to calculate how far I actually cycled, however, I suspect it was probably closer to 1,000 miles.

I was advised there was little much at John O'Groats, however, I found there was little much different to Lands End, so was not too badly disappointed. After a few quick snapshots for the record, I got back onto the bike to attempt to catch the 4pm train from Wick to Inverness.

However, with numerous slight gradients, a strong head wind, little strength left in the fading legs, aware of the railway deadline, this was a hellish final extra leg.

With extensive self-motivational commentary, much of which I would not care to relay here, I crawled back into Wick station with 15 minutes to spare to start a 4 hour train journey for the 100 or so mile journey back to Inverness.

On another day, I may have been able to pedal faster.

Tonight, I will stay at Inverness yha again and return tomorrow evening via the sleeper to Manchester, first class, courtesy of Scotrail.

So that's the end of the trip, however not the blog. I will make one last post, with some reflections and thank yous. Til then, thanks for following, and you be back, y'hear!