Day 1
June 11th - John O'Groats to Tongue

If I have ever had a better day than this on a bike then I can't remember it. This place is just stunning. Anyway I started the day by having some photos taken in front of the youth hostel and headed off to John O'Groats 3 miles down the road. As I got there another group of cyclists were unloading from a people carrier and we got talking. They were from Norfolk and planned to do the trip in 10 days. They had a support vehicle so none of them had panniers which is clearly cheating ! It cheered me up a bit to know that I'm not the only nutcase doing this.
The famous John O'Groats signpost was nothing more than a post in the ground - no wording on it at all. When I enquired about it at the shop he said they put the signs on later in the day, probably to avoid vandalism. I did find a chap who took some photos of me in front of another sign on a wall nearby so that'll have to do. I sent a few postcards, zeroed the gps, replied to the flurry of text messages and set off. It was so much easier than the previous evening mainly because now I had the wind behind me. The weather which had been sunny at the start soon clouded over but it was still warm. My next stop would be anywhere that did a nice fry-up and this turned out to be Jamiesons bakery at Thurso. As I got into Thurso my right knee started twinging a bit, nothing major but with 1100 miles to go I can do without stuff like that. Out of Thurso I headed along the north coast towards Bettyhill, the road was undulating rather than hilly and with the wind behind me it felt easy. I went past Dounreay nuclear power station and didn't grow a second head, which is nice. I did over 25 miles in the first 2 hours which is good for me ! By now the weather had improved and I changed into short sleeves. I stopped at a shop for an ice cream and overheard on the radio that Lewis Hamilton had got his first win - and I missed it. Doh !
As the day went on the hills got steeper and I was starting to think I should call it a day at Bettyhill. However, when I got to Bettyhill there wasn't much there and it was still only 4pm which was far too early to be stopping. The chap in the post office warned me that there were a couple of nasty hills on the road to Tongue and he wasn't wrong. Going up one of them I actually got overtaken by a jogger which was a bit embarrassing but I went flying past him on a downhill section soon after. I resisted the temptation to shout out "So long, sucker !" as I went by. The scenery between Bettyhill and Tongue was amazing. I only got my camera out when I saw something worth photographing and in that 12 mile stretch I took over 40 photos. It felt like every few hundred yards I was stopping for a picture. When I finally got to Tongue I had done 63.4 miles which is about 8 more than the average I need to complete this in 20 days so I was feeling quite pleased with myself. I was near my limit so I pulled into the first shop I saw - I was only going to get a coffee but it turned out that they did bed and breakfast and to make it even better they had a bath rather than the usual claustrophobic shower cubicle which I had to use on the previous two nights. A nice hot bath was just what my knee needed and it felt better straight away. After my bath Dave who runs the b&b gave me a lift into town to a pub which does food. One shandy and an Aberdeen Angus burger later I walked back up the hill to the b&b. Dave and his wife only recently moved here from Runcorn and I can see why they chose this place. The views here are just stunning, lakes, mountains, a castle on the hill and amazing sunsets every night.
I was expecting parts of Scotland such as the Great Glen, Loch Lomond etc to be picturesque but finding scenery like this so far north was a big surprise, I would have thought it would be much bleaker. Apart from the scenery the other thing that has amazed me is how friendly the locals are. Just stopping to buy anything in a shop results in a ten minute conversation about my trip and they all have that lovely accent. Car drivers are so courteous too, even the ones on the other side of the road slow down and wave. You don't get that in Devon !
It has been a great day today. If the rest of the trip is half as good as this then I shall count myself lucky. Having said that I've just heard the weather forecast for tomorrow and I think I'll be needing the waterproofs. Back to normality !

The Routemap

The Speed (in blue) and the Elevation (in Green)