Carbisdale Castle (Invershin) to John O'Groats - The Final Ride

WOW – the final day of our 1000 Miles Challenge!!! I can’t believe we’re here. Breakfast was rushed this morning, as we needed to get going hoping to avoid the oncoming rain. I wasn’t a very happy camper this morning (nor were the other people in our room) because Damian decided to get EVERYONE up in our 12-bed dormitory at 6.30am!!!! This was another short night with only 5h of sleep. As I tried avoiding getting up, desperately putting my pillow over my ears, all I could feel was a swoosh – and my blanket was gone. With Damian shouting “get up, get up, its time, we’ve got to go” the words we heard ever so often, the next blanket was on the floor without much resistance from Jorrin… What choice did we have but to get up! I slowly crawled out of bed into the bathroom, then kitchen, ate yesterday’s vegetable stew followed by porridge and toast (great combination…) and got myself ready. The final 110miles today!!

...the road to JOG

The weather forecast predicted heavy rain and Damian's parents coming up from Gleneagles confirmed that. Nobody fancied getting wet so we all tried to get everything together as fast as possible. We left at 8.15 and took the footbridge to the other side of the river and onto the A836 going North. The A836 then turned into a single lane road with passing places - the most quiet A road we've been on so far. At Altnaharra we went onto B873 along Loch Naver, with just a short 'faff stop' after to eat, drink, waste some time talking about things. The weather had been kind to us with no rain, slightly cold and some tail wind. Damian gave me a pocket history lesson of the Scottish Highlands starting around 16th century. We had a really good ride so far and did 38miles in 1.40h going up and down the hills. Time seemed to fly as we were chatting and pedaling.

...faffstop near Altnaharra

Then, finally, we saw the Atlantic Ocean near Bettyhill where we stopped for lunch. Everyone had a strong sense of achievement being closer to our final destination. Damian had a puncture; Ian stopped and checked the tyre. The tyre got changed and Damian drafted the car to get back to the group. The landscape became less barren and the hills were lined with yellow flowering gorse and the smell of pina colada was in the air. As we changed direction from going North to go East, we encountered good headwind and we chainganged to Thurso where we waited for Damian. We had apple pie and tea sitting in the pedestrian zone watching the main road. All of a sudden we saw a flesh of lightning racing through traffic - Damian. He didn't look like stopping to pick up his train tickets (an excuse to make us wait for him whilst he sneaks to John O'Groats???). We also missed Ian who tried to find a parking space. There was no time to waste. We had to catch up with Damian now.

...apple pie & tea @ Thurso, waiting for Damian

Leaving Thurso, Oli got onto what can only be explained as an 'apple pie' rush and I had real difficulty staying behind him. At some point Jorrin turned left to go to Dunnet Head, the UK mainland's most Northern point looking at the Island of Hoy. Oli and I continued to John O'Groats by ourselves going at incredible speed to the finishing line. We overtook a couple of LEJOG'ers en route, speeding past these guys with their panniers, backpacks etc - stuff we transported in the car - lucky us....Close to JOG we were then overtaken by Ian in the car.

We got to our final destination at about 5.30, record time also for us doing 110miles in 8hours with 3 breaks faffing around for only 1.5h. At John O'Groats we had pictures taken, did another few shots for the documentary and then waited ... Damian was the next to arrive and we took more pictures, video and were invited to the local cafe/bar for celebratory drinks by Damian. His parents also joined us in the cafe/ bar and we reported on some of the highlights of the journey and, waiting for Jorrin coined a new phrase: "We are now at the place named after a dutchman, waiting for a dutchman." Damians parents had booked a table at the Seaview Hotel and we decided to find the youth hostel to shower and get changed for the evening - no Jorrin in sight at that time (6pm).

...in front of the cafe/bar at JOG where we had celebratory drinks

Entry in LEJOG Book:
Olli, Damian, Dirk (Not Jorrin) arrived at faffheim today and wont be coming back ever again

The youth hostel, West of JOG (2 1/2miles) was the least accommodating SYHA and the facilities were ok, but actually a bit sub-standards having just come from Carbsdale Castle, Lochranza, Arnside etc...we had a 6-bed room, there was ONE shower in the men's bathroom, and the place locked up at 11pm sharp - no entry/ exit thereafter...we all felt a bit like being on a school trip.
I quickly showered and dressed to take the car back to JOG to pick up Ian and hopefully also Jorrin who should have arrived by now. I got there, parked the car and walked to the new arrival being inteviewed by Ian. I rushed them to the car as we only had another 35min to get ready for dinner. Damian had called the cab company in the meantime to investigate prices - £44 for 5miles was a bit steep and we decided to get back onto our bikes for a last ride!!!! Ian sprinted off like a young deer, dressed in his complete cycle outfit. Everyone else wore comfortable clothing ;)

We were met at the Seaview Hotel by Damians parents who treated us to a superb dinner with all ‘bells and whistles’! That felt good. We stayed until it was time for us to go back to the hostel, got a few more celebratory drinks to go and made our way back. It must have been 10.30 and it was still pretty bright outside. Its really amazing that it stayed like that for almost another hour (nice in summer but in winter the tables turn with long hours of darkness). At the SYHA we met some of the other guests of the hostel: fellow cyclists, walkers, holiday makers. We had a few more drinks before the warden turned the light off. We sneaked into Damian's bedroom to continue our well-deserved celebration for a little while longer before going to bed too. We will have to get up early next day to go from JOG to London - a very looong drive.

Things cycling:

Oli: "We are now at the place named after a dutchman, waiting for a dutchman."

Unknown: "It does take a while before the peanut butter enters the blood stream."