Kirkaldy to Thurso. - Thursday 6-7-23
Waking up on the Esplanade car park in Kirkaldy, the weather was fine and sunny. We set off for Inverness skirting the edge of the Cairngorms National Park. We stopped at Inverness for a while, and visited The Ness Islands, a collection of natural islands that sit in the middle of the River Ness, connected from the river banks and throughout by beautiful Victorian footbridges.
After Inverness we went to The Fairy Glen Falls on The Black Isle. A leisurely walk through the woods leads to a pair of waterfalls. The second set of falls are up some steep steps from the first, and then some way further up a muddy track, so we gave those a miss.
Back at the van we headed off for Tain, where we parked up for the night in another free carpark right beside Cromarty Firth. The great weather was still with us next morning when we headed off for John O Groats.
Stopping at Dornoch, we visited Cocoa Mountain for one of their renowned Hot Chocolates, then proceeded further up the coast, admiring the spectacular scenery.
We stopped a while at Brora, a beautiful wide sandy beach, and basked in the sunshine, before moving on up to John O Groats.
Obviously we had to take the obligatory photo of the signpost.
We just happened to arrive on the day a race was concluded of 30 or so runners, who had run from Lands End. It took them 5 weeks running 30 miles a day, each required to train for two years to be allowed to enter. There's committment for you. From here we continued on to nearby Thurso for the night, and met up with some friends for the evening.