John o’ Groats Trail Day 7.
Distance today: 25.9 miles.
Total distance: 136.8 miles.
Accommodation: wild camping.
A reasonably early start although the weather was not looking too promising. I hadn’t gone far down the road when I bumped into a fellow walker who had started his trip in Inverness. He looked the part with a compass strapped to his rucksack and a big transparent map holder hung round his neck. We had a bit of a chat and he reckoned I should be able to get to Inverness in 2 days. I was a bit skeptical but then I thought well, if he can do it …. Mind you, he was cheating by relying on B&Bs rather than carrying his own camping gear. Just as I was cheating by not wild camping all the time.
Next stop Dornoch. The town looked like it had a bit of money about it, not least with the fancy golf course and all the surrounding houses. I was genuinely taken aback to see a golfer with his own caddy in tow. I seriously thought that just happened in major competitions.
Walking into the centre of town, I managed to find a good place for breakfast. The Milk and Honey Café wasn’t too upmarket but had a contemporary feel about it even if it was still happy to dole out full Scottish breakfasts to any overweight golfers who happened to need it (3 of them sat at the next table). Slightly worthily, I resisted a fry-up and went for a home-made granola and yoghurt. And as healthy breakfasts go, it was surprisingly tasty.
As with Loch Fleet yesterday, Dornoch Firth acted as a large obstacle requiring an inland detour. The route to the bridge was mainly along quiet country roads which at least served to give me a few easy miles.
My next landmark was the Glenmorangie distillery. In the days when my Mum and Dad used to run a pub, Glenmorangie was always one of my Dad’s favourite drinks. He had passed away a number of years ago but visiting the distillery felt like a respectful pilgrimage in his memory. Aside from a couple of shiny new extensions, the place had the look of somewhere that hadn’t changed much in decades. Predictably, I didn’t sign up for the tour (busy man, places to go etc. etc.) but taking a few photos and buying a miniature was enough for me.
Back on the trail, there was meant to be a shortcut that took you through some woods rather than taking you towards Tain. Through a combination of bad navigating and missed/missing waymarkers, I ended up missing the shortcut and heading to Tain anyway. I’m sure it will become a theme for this trek but when you are tired and you are already doing a lot of miles, you really don’t want to do any unnecessary miles on top of that.
For the rest of the day the route took me along a mixture of forest access roads and more country lanes with barely another person to be seen anywhere. It was all pleasant enough even if I wasn’t in the best mindset to fully appreciate it. At one point, the trail does a little detour so that you don’t have to walk on the road. The only snag being that the detour takes you along an actively forested track complete with fallen trees and mini reservoirs (okay, big puddles) where the water had pooled in the dips in the road. As I could feel my feet getting wetter and wetter, It’s fair to say there were more than a few outbursts of swearing.
It became clear I wasn’t going to make it as far as Alness and so started to keep my eyes open for somewhere to camp. All the fields seemed to have animals in them or at least not offer much in terms of anywhere hidden from the road. I bumped into a couple of women chatting outside their houses and asked them if they knew anywhere where I could pitch a tent (if I am honest, half hoping a garden might be offered). One of them suggested a spot further up the road next to a water reservoir. Sure enough, there was a small patch of grass, admittedly not bowling green flat, with a handy little gorse bush that almost hid you from the road. It would do. God I was tired. It had been a long day. One final nightcap to raise a toast. Cheers Dad.
