Day 15. Mon 29th Aug. Tongue to John O'Groats. 65 Miles.

Journey's End

After all the drama of yesterdays ride. Today seemed like a breeze. The route was a lot like Cornwall for the first 20 Miles, then undulating for 15miles and after THURSO flat all the way to John O'Groat's. All along the A836 .The wind was on our backs and significantly less ferocious than yesterday. My buckled wheel dictated my speed, but I had long since decided to take it easy and spend the day with Jenny and Dave. After all Jane had a new buddy for the day, the unshackled and unleashed Caroline.

Strathy Bay

After a cracking evening at the BEN LOYAL HOTEL and a bountiful breakfast we set off at 8.30am. Dave's cunning plan of stoking the fire just before we went to bed and leaving our shoes on the hearth had sadly failed as they had put the fire out as soon as we went up. It started to rain despite the forecast of a fine day on the religiously watched 10 o' clock news last night. No serious climbs until we got to BETTYHILL at 12 miles.

My mate Jenny!

 Although the wind was 20mph and scooping  us up the hills. After her experiences yesterday Jenny seemed relaxed and was cycling at a steady pace on her incredibly squeaky bike. The first 20 miles had some sharp ups and downs. Not being able to benefit from the downs I was instead clinging on to the brakes and keeping an eye on my front wheel. Watching Jenny fly past me on every descent. I even caught a fleeting glimpse of Jane and her new cycling partner on the horizon climbing up the next hill. I empathised with Caroline as I watched her slowly loosing touch as Jane blasted up the hill. I was feeling rather pleased with my choice and felt really comfortable chatting away the morning with my mate Jenny. Who I've got to know fairly well over the past two weeks, so the hours and the miles slipped by unnoticed.
We'd done 25 miles before the first rather disappointing scheduled stop. A shop with no hot drink or shelter. We had to sit outside chomping away on our cold pasties. At least they had a toilet. It started to rain again so we pushed on to THURSO. 15miles further on. We got there an hour later and were in need of a nice hot coffee as the cold Scottish summer was taking it's toll. Thurso is a surprisingly large town and we soon found Jane and Caroline at the first Cafe' on the left. It was bland and unimpressive, but warm with seats so good enough. Jenny and I just had time to order our food when Dave arrived followed swiftly by the boys. You sensed today was a bit of an anti climax. We were on the same road all day, no interesting places, no views of any note and no difficulty in the cycling as we had the wind behind us. We did get a rare glimpse of Bob, who proceeded to order loads of cakes. No wonder he was so slow!
We stayed for half an hour then set off for the final 20 miles of this epic journey.
Jane by now had persuaded Caroline to do the extra 8 miles and go via DUNNETS HEAD. The most northerly part of the British Isles. I knew she would. I did feel a pang of frustration at my bike, but was already resigned to not visiting the top of the country. So thought I'd give Caroline the pleasure of watching Jane's rather shapely backside disappear into the distance up to Dunnet's Head.  Jenny , Dave and I completed the final few miles together with all the hills of the day climbed and a strong wind on our backs we floated along the well surfaced roads from Thurso to our final destination. JOHN O' GROATS. Which incidentally should be renamed Grotty o' Groats. I thought Land's End was a bit bleak but this place took the biscuit. The original hotel long since closed down and painted in an array of gaudy fluorescent colours graffiti like in their presentation.

The van was at the finishing line. We all rather appropriately (apart from the 'posh')rolled down the last road together, had our photo's taken by Tony and were handed our celebratory mugs and medal, along with a Luke warm plastic cup of cheap champagne. Which rather summed up John O' Groats. We were then sent to the cafe' to wait for BOB to finish!

Peppermill Anyone?

Ignoring the man at the kiosk with his 'charity bucked' for photo's. I hurdled the rope with Caroline and we took pictures for each other at the finish post. Bob arrived 15 mins later and the official group photo was at last taken. Onto the SEAVIEW HOTEL back up the hill for the final get together with this delightful bunch of strangers, that would all now hold a piece of my heart and warm colourful memories.