For one crazy hour today I actually intended to go all the way to John O Groats, a mere bagatelle at 90 miles. The idea gradually faded over the next few miles. The single track road was amazingly busy. Some cars waited in passing places, causing you to pedal like hamster, and others, the Bicycle Deniers, passed at 60mph within two feet of my bike. Terrifying. The cattle grids were also teeth-chippingly juddery!
It was about 12 miles to Altnaharra, where I got coffee in the hotel then six along the edge of Loch Naver. At the end of Loch Naver, the River Naver was born. It was a really powerful thing to see, the overspill from the loch running off as a river. Then the road followed every inch of the river until it reached the sea at Bettyhill. The Strathnaver communities all fell victim to the Highland Clearances and their is a quite moving themed trail throughout its length.
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| Highland Clearances Memorial |
I was planning to have hot food in Bettyhill and so were the three other hungry end-to-enders with their noses pressed up against the locked café door.
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| The River Naver meets the sea at Bettyhill. |
There was no food to be had before Strathy, 12 miles away. Luckily, Les had bought me a flask for just such an eventuality and I had tea and sandwiches instead.
I had been fighting a headwind all day and now I was out on the north coast road it was just silly. I can’t really complain though. This is my first really proper headwind and I finish tomorrow. I decided to stop at Melvich, leaving 36 miles for tomorrow. Les had been out kayaking in the neighbourhood, as she did every time an unexplored water body was close by, and she loaded me and Bikey up for the second last time.
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