LEJOG Day 17 - Strathy Bay to John O’Groats

It’s done - we’ve completed the challenge. I’ve ridden from one end of the country and Jan has driven it! I was late starting off today - we’d had a very comfortable night and relaxing breakfast in our Pod and I was also hoping the thick cloud would burn away a bit, but no luck and wearing long trousers, two pairs of socks and three layers on my top, I set off at 10:30. The wind was still from the east and the forecast reckoned it would be about 11 to 13 mph. It felt stronger to me, but I’ll bow to their expertise. My Garmin reckoned there were only two climbs on todays route but I have learnt that it doesn’t count every hill as a climb! As anyone who has ridden near a coastline can attest, every stream/river making its way to the sea can carve out a valley needing a descent and a climb - I had a few of these and the wind made freewheeling downhill slow and climbing up slower! The countryside on this north coast is bleak to say the least and especially so on a grey day like today so I didn’t have much to distract me from the continuous slog. It also explains the relative lack of photos. Thurso distracted me as I had to stop at a couple of sets of traffic lights and spotted a Tesco store - it must be the furthest north on the mainland. I hadn’t seen any yellow cars all morning but there were a few in Thurso. Carrying on, after another climb, a bend in the road and there was Dounreay Nuclear Power Station and I took some pictures as I passed. I believe it is being decommissioned but I noticed that Rolls Royce have a presence on the site and recall that they reckon they’ve developed a small, economic nuclear reactor for which they want public money to develop further….. We’d decided to meet for lunch at Dunnet Bay about 30 miles into the ride and I arrived there about 20 minutes later than I expected, however, Jan had been exploring and was a bit behind me so I had to wait a while for the packed lunch she’d made us. Dunnet Bay is a wide expanse of sand backed up by lots of grass covered sand dunes. In fact once I’d tuned my eyes into spotting them, a lot of this coastline appears to be covered in sand dunes or sand dunes on top of the rock base - look again at the photo of Strathy Bay that I posted yesterday. After lunch I got back on my bike and knuckled down to get the final 20 odd miles done. The wind was still making it a chore but the sun did (briefly) break through a couple of times. The closer I got to the finish, the broader the smile on my face became and finally I’d made the final turn and could freewheel down to the finish. Jan was there and we had a little celebration, took some photos and sent a couple of messages. Well that’s it. It simultaneously feels like only yesterday but also a lifetime ago that we left Lands End and now here we are right at the other end of the British mainland. Thankyou everyone for your support, encouragement, sponsorship, comments and competition entries. The biggest Thankyou must go to Jan - as usual she has come up with some great places to stay, kept me healthy, clean, fed, dressed and pointing in the right direction. How she does it, I’ll never know, so thanks Jan. Todays stats: Distance: 42.28 miles Avg speed: 9.9 mph Max speed: 30.2 mph Climbing: 1,917 feet Total distance: 983.2 miles Yellow Car Boom!: 130 Here is the bit you are waiting for:- The competition winners are: Guess the total distance: Louise with 984.0 (very closely followed by Margs with 982.2 and Brian with 984.2) Yellow Car Boom!: Carly was bang on with 130 (Tina also guessed correctly but unfortunately we received her guess after 12:00 hrs today). We’ll hand over the prizes when we get back (what’s the betting they are Scottish themed?). Thanks again everyone, I need to get some sleep.