Crask to Thurso

Next morning after breakfast we parted for the North coast of Scotland. The first town was Altnaharra where we left the main road ( single lane) and followed the river Naver all the way to the sea. Unintentional we were following the Strathnaver trail. Along the way signs spoke of the local history, flora and fauna. The valley here suffered badly in the Highland clearances and Donald McLeod http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/Heritage/FSCNS/Scots_NS/Hty_Sct/High_Clr/Mem/Donald_Macleod.html
wrote a book called Gloomy Memories which resulted in him being evicted. A very sad part of Scottish History. We found a small corrugated iron church that could have been any country church at

home in New Zealand.

The village was Betty Hill overlooks a stunning golden sand beach that is completely unexpected in this part of the world. We chatted to a lady who was walking up the hill at the same pace as we rode it. She was delightful.. We stopped and bough some free range eggs at the side of the road and picked up some free rhubarb. Several big hills later we arrived at Melvich where we camped for the night.

As we arrived a couple in a campervan came over and offered us a cuppa to drink while we set up camp. They were former cycle tourists so knew how much a hot drink would mean to us. We ate rhubarb for dessert and washed and dried our clothes for free in the camp laundrette. We set up at the local pub for a couple of hours to update our blog and recharge the computer battery.

The morning was wet again set we packed away a wet tent and set off for Thurso. Along the way we passed the Dounreay nuclear installation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dounreay which is being dismantled after having been decommissioned. http://www.dounreay.com/ . It is a bit of an eye sore on the landscape.

When we arrive at Thurso we did a detour to the nearby port of Scrabster where we had a hot drink and booked Sally’s high tea for the 14th. We found a “cheap” hostel in town and we stayed for 4 nights trying to recharge the batteries. We spent many hours catching up on the blog.

The local museum was fantastic. http://www.caithnesshorizons.co.uk/

The third night was a disaster as a bunch of drunks created havoc from 1:30 am to 4:30 in the morning so neither of us got much sleep. They also insisted on smoking in the corridor so we were smoked out as well. As they were quite aggressive towards each other we decided staying put was the best option. On the Wednesday we packed just one bag and set off for John O’Groats.