Thu, 17 Oct 2002

author Tim	location John O'Groats, Caithness, Scotland
posted 18:38 BST	section Europe2002/Europe/UK/Scotland/Scotland 2 ( all photos )

Top o' the Mainland 2 ( 7 photos )
Right, now we're up to today.
Before setting out from Durness, we had a bit of a look around the town itself. A "Wax and Wine" museum failed to be all that interesting, which was certainly not the case for our walk on the beach. You see, up here, it is extremely windy. The rain comes along when it feels like it. Both were present as we walked around this sandy beach with great rock formations, enclosed in as many layers of clothing and waterproofing as we could locate.
After leaving there, we noted the people we had seen set up camp beside the sea were still walking around. Not sure how they felt after a night of hard rain and strong winds, but they seemed ok.
Next stop was "Smoo Cave". Initially we had decided to go there just because of its exceedingly strange name, but we were soon very glad that we had. Used years ago for smugglers and the like to hide out in, it is the result of a river running to the sea eventually breaking through into a cave underneath it, creating a sink-hole with a huge waterfall. The walk down to it and then standing about 10m away was very scary - the forces of nature are not to be tampered with. The power of this waterfall was amazing, and in the small little cave even more so.
The drive from there across the top of Scotland was one of the most memorable we have ever done. The landscape is almost all rock, wind-swept reeds and grasses, sheep and the windy, hilly single-track road which we clung to in the wind. Running out of supurlatives here. It was great.
A windy pit stop was at the end of the road in Bettyhill - very quick as we decided that Percy was a great place to be after all. Heater on quick smart.
The rest of the day was driving around looking at B&Bs, and walking in the wind (bent into it trying to walk) in the areas between Thurso and John O'Groats. This took in John O'Groats itself (for some reason thought of as the most North-Westerly town on the mainland. It's not - instead just find touristy shops and our first pay-to-pee toilet for a while here), Duncansby Head (actually the most North-Westerly town on the mainland, where it was so windy that plastic bins in the car park similar to what you put out your garbage out in each week had the lid constantly being blown open, and that was the sheltered area), and Dunnet Head (the Northern-most point of mainland Britain). Whew!
A little apprehensive after reading Lonely Planet describe the ferry to Orkney as "two of the most stomach-churning hours spent", we were quite happy to discover another ferry operator working a different route that takes only one hour! We are booked on the 9:45 ferry tomorrow morning from Dunnet Bay. That's about fifteen minutes drive from where we are staying, the Seaview Hotel in John O' Groats.
Here, we got what we paid for (not much), with moldy ceilings, broken TV, and noisy pipes. Admittedly it has character, but I hope the food is good...

author Tim	location John O'Groats, Caithness, Scotland
posted 18:38 BST	section Europe2002/Europe/UK/Scotland/Scotland 2 ( all photos )

Top o' the Mainland 2 ( 7 photos )
Right, now we're up to today.
Before setting out from Durness, we had a bit of a look around the town itself. A "Wax and Wine" museum failed to be all that interesting, which was certainly not the case for our walk on the beach. You see, up here, it is extremely windy. The rain comes along when it feels like it. Both were present as we walked around this sandy beach with great rock formations, enclosed in as many layers of clothing and waterproofing as we could locate.
After leaving there, we noted the people we had seen set up camp beside the sea were still walking around. Not sure how they felt after a night of hard rain and strong winds, but they seemed ok.
Next stop was "Smoo Cave". Initially we had decided to go there just because of its exceedingly strange name, but we were soon very glad that we had. Used years ago for smugglers and the like to hide out in, it is the result of a river running to the sea eventually breaking through into a cave underneath it, creating a sink-hole with a huge waterfall. The walk down to it and then standing about 10m away was very scary - the forces of nature are not to be tampered with. The power of this waterfall was amazing, and in the small little cave even more so.
The drive from there across the top of Scotland was one of the most memorable we have ever done. The landscape is almost all rock, wind-swept reeds and grasses, sheep and the windy, hilly single-track road which we clung to in the wind. Running out of supurlatives here. It was great.
A windy pit stop was at the end of the road in Bettyhill - very quick as we decided that Percy was a great place to be after all. Heater on quick smart.
The rest of the day was driving around looking at B&Bs, and walking in the wind (bent into it trying to walk) in the areas between Thurso and John O'Groats. This took in John O'Groats itself (for some reason thought of as the most North-Westerly town on the mainland. It's not - instead just find touristy shops and our first pay-to-pee toilet for a while here), Duncansby Head (actually the most North-Westerly town on the mainland, where it was so windy that plastic bins in the car park similar to what you put out your garbage out in each week had the lid constantly being blown open, and that was the sheltered area), and Dunnet Head (the Northern-most point of mainland Britain). Whew!
A little apprehensive after reading Lonely Planet describe the ferry to Orkney as "two of the most stomach-churning hours spent", we were quite happy to discover another ferry operator working a different route that takes only one hour! We are booked on the 9:45 ferry tomorrow morning from Dunnet Bay. That's about fifteen minutes drive from where we are staying, the Seaview Hotel in John O' Groats.
Here, we got what we paid for (not much), with moldy ceilings, broken TV, and noisy pipes. Admittedly it has character, but I hope the food is good...

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