Today we left Dingwall and headed to Tain
Today we had Barat and Lynn walking from the start (Mike would join later) and Elizabeth (wearing her bunny ears) helping with travel logistics.
We actually started from somewhere close to Ardullie (about 6km outside Dingwall) as that was where we walked to last night – we will overshoot by about 5-6km per day today and tomorrow to reduce the lengthy last two days. The sun was rising above the Cromaty Firth and the sky was also filled with migrating geese – fascinating to watch the patterns they make as various “flights” join together and separate – the noise above us was incredible as well. Then we passed the most adorable little Shetland Pony – their average height is about 102 cm (40 inches; unlike other horses, Shetlands are not measured in hands) with a maximum height of about 117 cm.
As we continued down the road towards Tain, we passed through Evanton with further nice views of Cromaty Firth. In the distance, on top of Cnoc Fyrish (453m) we could just about see a building – this is the Fyrish Monument which was built in 1782 on the orders of Sir Hector Munro 8th of Novar, a native lord of the area who had served in India as a general. As the local population were being cleared off the land they had worked for centuries by the Lords of the Land, survival was a problem and so it was built to keep the locals in labour. It was said that Sir Hector rolled stones from the top of the hill to the bottom, thereby extending the amount of time worked and paying the labourers for additional hours. The monument represents the Gate of Negapatam, a port in Madras, India, which General Munro took for the British in 1781.
As we passed by Invergordon in the distance we could see that the number of oil rigs / platforms being stored in the Firth looked to have increased from last year. At this stage we passed a team who were supporting a guy from Exeter who was skateboarding from John O’Groats to Land’s End – if you thought we were mad well this is another level! We then (finally) passed our 800 mile milestone, meaning less than 100 miles to go – quite a moment.
We passed Tain (our scheduled stop for the night) but due to our plan to overshoot each day we still had another 11 km to cover. We had some spectacular views of Dornoch Firth as we walked down towards, and then crossed, the Dornoch Firth Bridge. Dornoch Firth is designated as a national scenic area, one of 40 such areas in Scotland. The remainder of the day was spent on the busy A9 (due to be our companion now for Wednesday and Thursday) as we reached our stopping point for the day. On the way it was good to finally see John O’Groats represented on a mileage sign!
Tomorrow we will head for Helmsdale (about 15km past our hotel in Brora).
It’s strange to think that our adventure is nearly over (again).
