Reay – Thurso. 3 July

This was planned as a really easy day, to get myself to Thurso and bring the blog up to date.  Then I could also have a rest day as I delay my completion stage to John O’Groats so as to meet up with the ‘welcoming committee’.

This schedule is beginning to feel very relaxed and a little lazy.

With the usual, invaluable, advice from my landlady (Ros at Linkside B&B) I soon turned off the A836 at Isauld and took a minor road through Shebster and Westfield. This is ‘the back road’ to Thurso.  The sun shone. The road had few hills. The road surface was mostly recently-laid tarmac without even the new white lines. Traffic was quiet. The moderate westerly wind was at my back. This is positively indulgent.

As I crested a hill above Thurso I was presented with a grand view over to Dunnet Head and the Orkneys.

On Sunday I spent some time looking round Thurso, which is replete with Viking history. The Caithness Exhibition is very interesting and the Visit Scotland staff were as helpful as ever. Both these offices were open on Sunday.  As usual my landlady, Fiona at the Navidale Guest House, was full of good advice. The rooms were so nice that I arranged for my ‘welcoming committee’ of three people to also stay here in a couple of days time.

Over lunch I also met up with three guys who have just reached here on bikes from Land’s End. They will finish this afternoon and then train and fly back to their home in Southampton. Flying (from Inverness) turned out to be both quicker and cheaper than using the train. We swapped war stories about the journey so far and discussed what life would be like when we returned to normality.

Setting off from Reay. Where did I put the sunglasses?

Dounray Power Station. No longer producing power, but will take several years to de-commission.

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Between Shebster and Westfield lies this ruin. Complete with bell-tower. The Old Manse was next door so maybe it was a Presbyterian Church?  Or a school?

Note. Those helpful people at Caithness Horizons in Thurso subsequently idenftified this building as the Reay Free Church 1844. They contacted me the next day to tell me what it was.   How helpful !

Very imposing and austere.

This one bull had fifteen heifers with him in the field. Obviously none of them was ‘in the mood’

On a clear day you can see the old man! On the right is Dunnet Head with its cliff. On the horizon is Orkney Islands. At the far left you can see a column of rock known as the Old Man of Hoy. To the right of the Orkney is a stack from which they burn off the surplus gas arising from the North Sea pipe terminal. That is at Scapa Flow. If you cannnot see it then that;s due to the limitations of my I-Phone camera.

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Downtown Thurso at 9 o’clock on a Saturday night.

12.08 miles.  1 hour 12 minutes.  Avge 10 mph

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