LEJOG Blog

I was woken in the small hours by the unfamiliar sound of raindrops being blown with some force on our bedroom window. I looked out into almost total darkness: there were three or four orange smears somewhere in the gloom, neon lights through horizontal rain. I tried to sleep but did not succeed for at least an hour.

The next time I looked out, a small amount of daylight had oozed through the clouds, which was enough for me to see the pampas grass outside clinging onto its mother earth with every fibre of its being. Our final ride of the holiday from East Mey to Thurso via Dunnet Head promised to be among the toughest miles of all.

Breakfast was ample and well-cooked and was enlivened considerably when our host informed us cheerfully that Alan Ball had died of a heart attack: Alan Ball of Everton and England, who once famously told a newspaper reporter that he didn't squeeze his spots because he wanted to be repulsive in order to keep the girls away. They would only interfere with his football.

By the time we set off, at around 8:20, the rain had stopped and the sun was threatening to emerge. The fact that the wind was southerly rather than westerly was also a considerable bonus: it would be a crosswind rather than an againsterly for much of the ride.

Our progress was initially very good as we enjoyed a long downhill from East Mey. After about four miles, we turned towards Dunnet Head - a final northern push to the outer limits of this island. This section was wind-assisted and still we bowled along but we could see that the sleeping monster we had photographed so happily in the tranquillity of last night's sunset was a totally different beast in the cold light of a gale-force day.

I was surprised to see some quite large lakes beside the road as we approached the lighthouse, and even more so to see that the fishing rights belong to the Dunnet Head Angling Society. Does someone really come up here to put half-tame stock trout in these wilderness lochans so that someone else can pay for the privilege of pulling them out again?

Eventually, we reached the lighthouse and in many ways, our journey's end. To me, Land's End to John O'Groats was incidental, a ride for the tabloids. Lizard's Point to Dunnet Head is a journey for the purist.

It is a marvellous place - nothing but sea between you and the north pole. The sun was trying to break through as we reached the top and we could just make out the Old Man of Hoy. We all recalled a gripping day's television in the early 1960s when the BBC broadcast live from Hoy as Joe Brown and his team became the first climbers to conquer it. Now that was reality TV - one of the finest moments of British broadcasting history.

After a few final photographs, we began the last ride of all along the A836 to Thurso station. A few times, we had to stop as we have done throughout the last thousand miles so that Janet can get comfortable.

I really must get around to adjusting her saddle.