28th
Day 14 and 15 - Pittentrail to John ‘O Groats (via Tongue)
Written from the comfort and cleanliness of home… we set off into the rain from Pittentrail. We felt a bit sheepish as the other cyclists there were doing about 150 miles down to Fort William, which was about 2 ish days of our pace. Still the going was easy. We found the weather did this, when the going was easy, the weather was crap, and when the going was crap the weather was easy (sunny).
We only had a few miles on the clock when we stopped for a coffee. The place was a bit shabby and you get the idea not a lot of people go there. This far north in Scotland we never saw darkness. We weren’t exactly staying up late but it’s fair to say I didn’t see the dark for 5 days. But then I thought, what is this place like in winter? Surely it’s ripe for a Scottish remake of ‘Let the Right One In’? We realised we’d actually gone up a couple of hundred meters and stopped at The Crask Inn for much needed coffee and some ham sandwiches. They had a dog and a massive map on the wall which kept Dave occupied for an hour whilst I rested up. It was all downhill from Tongue (kind of) and we zipped through some of the most desolate but still great scenery. Arriving at the hostel at 4pm we had time for a trip down to the estuary. Dinner was massive, fish and chips (yet again) and then to bed in the light as ever. Day 15, our last day was likely to be the longest. We had to be in Wick for 4pm for the train to Inverness, where a connection would take us home. Oh and there was the small matter of getting to John ‘O Groats too. We got up at 5:30 and started making our way. Lucky we had the early start. It was the hilliest day since Cornwall/Devon. Climb after climb (checking a book later it turned out it was 6) finally came to an end in Thurso. We stopped for a number of Toasties and Coffees before Dave’s quote about ‘finishing the thing’. We headed for the end… 20 miles to go. 9 miles out we crossed some gravel, I looked around and there was no sign of Dave. It turned out his dérailleur snapped off the bike and took a few spokes out with it. He called me and I thought he was crying (he wasn’t). There was no way we could have come this way and not finish together one way or another. Luckily an amazing guy had just come past who was properly prepared. There should be a photo somewhere below. He helped Dave do a side-of-the-road conversion to single speed and tightened some spokes. There was no way that bike was going to make it based on the equipment we had with us, but with some tools and know how Bob got Dave back on the road. He has a donation page which it seems only fair to link to here. So I cycled and Dave’s bike hobbled the last few miles. It wasn’t really an anticlimax thanks to the bike disaster earlier, we were glad to make it. We also decided it was best to take a taxi to Wick from there. We met Bob on the train later and caught up. Brilliant end to the trip really, although Dave’s bill for the damage won’t be pretty. Cheers for all the comments and encouragement on Facebook and Twitter. It means a lot to know people are reading and/or enjoying the posts. I’ll probably wack up a guide of what we did and what I wouldn’t do again some time. But for now, this is finished!
