Today we left Tain and headed for Helmsdale (Brora)
Today Barath would start walking with us and Lynn and Mike would join later in the day and Elizabeth was helping with transport logistics.
We drove to Evelix, where we finished walking yesterday, to restart our progress to John O’Groats. It was pretty chilly this morning (I think about 5c) as we left but with the rising sun and the feisty traffic on the A9 we warmed up soon enough.
As we approached The Mound, we passed the 1,300 kilometre mark – definitely not long to goo now. The Mound is a causeway across the mouth of the River Fleet. A passenger ferry once crossed at Littleferry at the opposite end of Loch fleet but, in 1816, this new embankment and road were completed by noted engineer Thomas Telford(1757 – 1834) who constructed a stone-arched bridge over a narrow river channel at the northeastern end of The Mound, and modified this bridge seventeen years later in 1833.
We picked up lunch (and swapped Barath for Lynn) in Golspie and then headed further along the A9 to Brora – this is where our hotel is for the night but with smoothing out the daily distances we still had quite a way to go (17 km).
By now the traffic had eased from heavy to mildly heavy, gaps between batches of traffic but still plenty of HGVs, Camper Vans and Taxi Drivers not paying attention to deal with. The weather was nice and sunny without being too hot as we passed alongside Brora golf course and the beach (which looked very tempting even if the water is probably of arctic temperature).
As we approached Helmsdale, a brief shower provided a good rainbow just off the coast – the closer we got to it the more it moved away! A family of squabbling turkeys got our attention and then we made it into Helmsdale. Rather than stop there, we took in a little bit of the hill (saves doing straight after breakfast tomorrow) and finished the day in East Helmsdale.
Tomorrow we will head just past Lybster.
And as you can see below, we are nearly there – just two more days to go
