Day 1 - Duncansby Head to Melvich (via John O'Groats and Dunnet Head)

Distance: 46.8 miles
Elevation: 1788 ft (though there is some disagreement here, as Dad's Garmin seems to have gone off on it's own, flatter route!)
Average speed: 14mph
https://www.strava.com/activities/2428386795



Ride report:

Scotland holds about 90% of Britain's fresh water, and I think rather a lot of it fell on our heads today. When I first had the idea of cycling the length of the country, I rather foolishly imagined two weeks of glorious sun, riding through beautiful countryside. I'm sure the countryside is beautiful, we just couldn't see it today!

We left Thurso just before 9 this morning, and headed out to the top of the country. There is some debate over what constitutes a "true" end-to-end trip, so to make sure we covered all the bases, we started at Duncansby Head (the north-east "pointy end"). I foolishly didn't bring a good waterproof cycling jacket, so after having donned my regular mac to get the bikes off the car, I decided not to take it off again! Dad decided that his team hoodie was too warm to discard from under his coat, so dressed for comfort rather than style, we set off on our adventure.

10am @ Duncansby Head: already soggy, but smiling.

It was a pretty quick journey to John O'Groats, which isn't the pointy end or the most northerly point, but does have a famous signpost. Normally there are good views across to Orkney - not so much today. We made a very quick stop to bag the photo, then Mum headed off to source coffee and Dad and I set off westwards along the north coast.

10.15 @ John O'Groats: Still smiling!

Dunnet Head is the most northerly point of the British mainland, so we took a diversion off the road to climb up the headland. There were plenty of campervans on the single track road, but we got lots of grins and waves as we pulled over each time to let them by. Made it to the top, where Mum had been watching our progress on the tracker, and a couple of friendly chaps in an old Jag took a full team picture by the marker stone. Having now covered all three "endpoints", it was time to head back to Thurso.

11.40 @ Dunnet Head: the grins are starting to look a bit fixed!

Lunch was in my favourite Thurso coffee shop - my last visit here! Excellent soup and coffee, and as we'd made fantastic time so far (thanks to the winds being fairly mild, and at our backs), we had a second round of coffee with some cake - that ended up weighing a bit heavy on the afternoon's climbs, but the caffeine definitely helped my legs!

Lunch at Cafe Cardosi in Thurso, hoping it'd stop raining! (spoiler: it didn't)

Climbing out of Thurso, I had to remember not to shoot off on one of the evening rides I've been doing here for the last year! It didn't stop raining, and as we neared the end, the final climb took us up into the clouds. No end picture tonight, as we were too keen to get into the warm and dry! Shoes are drying in front of the fire...

Just back from the local pub, which provided Nanny State (non-alcoholic beer is isotonic, and therefore suitable sports nutrition!) and burgers/lasagne. We're well and truly underway now, and tomorrow we actually start heading south - despite the distance we've covered, we're actually only 8 miles south of Dunnet Head tonight! Weather forecast for tomorrow is much better - we've got 70 miles to ride to Bonar Bridge.

Comments

  1. Good write-up! I’m a former shipmate of Andy’s and I’m an avid cyclist who rode Houston to New Orleans over six days in May, 548 miles. I’m watching and wishing you good luck!

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    Replies
    1. Thanks very much! And thanks also for the sponsorship. Houston to New Orleans looks like a good run - slightly lower daily mileage for us on this one!

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