25th July 2010 - Loch Naver to John o Groats

The last day of cycling.  Our night of wild camping had been pretty eh ... wild.  It had been quite windy and there was a fair bit of rain during the night.  The tent was letting in water again and there was a thick covering of midgies in one corner of the tent.  We didn't care about this though, it was still the last day of cycling, yippee. There was a break in the rain so we took the tent down pretty sharpish.  Breakfast was a car picnic.  There was one plus to it raining, there weren't too many midgies about.

Cycling along the River Naver was amazing. Apart from the odd house, there was absolutely nobody about, no cars, just lots of sheep.

It was 18 miles to Bettyhill from where we had camped for the night and for some reason I still hadn't found my legs when I arrived, I was still feeling quite lethargic. I met Carol, Katy and the girls for a spot of brunch. Like the previous day, Carol, Katy and the girls would meet me at various points along the way.  The road out of Bettyhill is very hilly and I was still feeling a little lethargic. About 10 miles from Bettyhill all the food Carol has been force feeding me must have kicked in because I felt great and zipped along the road.

The last stop of the day before John o Groats was Thurso where I had a coffee.  I drank my coffee and headed for John o Groats.

I arrived in John o Groats in no time at all, in fact Carol was worried that I would be there before them as they had stopped at a beach to walk the dogs.  It was the best feeling ever to have finally finished.  From about five miles out I had been in a kind of time trialling mode, if that is possible on a touring bike with trekking handlebars and 37mm tyres.  I spotted Carol, Katy and the girls straight away.  There were hugs and kisses all round and Rosie had picked me some flowers.  We tooks photographs at the sign and that was it, Land's End to John o Groats in twelve days cycling. 68 miles cycles today, 1006.6 miles in total.

We hung around for a while before heading back to Torguish House for the night.

Song for Today: Grandaddy - The Final Push to the Sum