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Tuesday 25 July 2017

LeJoG Day 18 - Keep right on to the end of the road


Keep right on to the end of the road, 
Keep right on to the end, 
Tho' the way be long, let your heart be strong, 
Keep right on round the bend. 
Tho' you're tired and weary still journey on . . . 


This Scottish song describes my feelings about our journey quite well at the moment!  (Although, of course, it refers to our journey through life, and was written by Sir Harry Lauder after his son was killed in action during WW1).

When we got to Loch Ness on Saturday, it felt as if we'd as good as reached the end of the road - there were only four days of cycling left, with shorter distances than we'd been doing.  After two and a half weeks of cycling, we're much fitter.  So I thought these last few days would be easier.  More fool me!  While we are much fitter, but we're also 'tired and weary'.  It's a struggle to keep going.  But I'm glad we're cycling, and not walking!  We met a couple today who are walking Lands End to John O'Groats, with their dog!  They started towards the end of April, and are hoping to reach John O'Groats during the first week of August.

Our ride today started with a very pleasant 10 miles or so above the Cromarty Firth, to Tain.  We visited this town two years ago, 'ancestor hunting' - Steve has ancestors buried in the cemetery there.  We didn't revisit their grave today, though!

From Tain onwards, we were on the A9, across the Dornoch bridge and then north-east along the coast to Helmsdale.  Maybe 30+ miles of grinding along a major road has added to my sense of struggling to continue at present!  The road wasn't too busy, so not as scary as the road along the Great Glen on Saturday, but it's not the kind of road where you can relax and enjoy the ride.  Fortunately, the rain held off until we arrived at Helmsdale, where we're staying in a B&B.  A hot bath and a good meal have done their job, and a good night's sleep will hopefully leave us ready to tackle the road up the Strath of Kildonan and on to the north coast, and to Thurso tomorrow.  It still looks as if we're likely to be getting both wet and wind-buffeted, but Thursday looks better, so even if we do a relatively short distance tomorrow, we're still on course to get to John O'Groats on Thursday! 

Not many photos today - just these two views of the
Dornoch Firth, taken from the bridge across it





LeJoG in pictures

These videos use lots of the photos we took during our cycle ride, to tell the story - they're in order, from start to finish.  If you&#...