Day 70 - Dunbeath to Watten
Oh groundhog weather - low mist and cloud this morning which cheered me up no end. The thought of more plodding along the A9 was so inviting....not! The B&B I was staying in is in the process of being built so in reality was more like a building site. The original Inver Guest House stands on their land, a relic from 1911 made almost entirely from wood. They've had demolition consent for the last 6 years but it still stands as the view from the dining room!
Once again legs were protesting in earnest this morning as I thumped slowly up the main road ever northwards. Only gentle undulations but it's a real struggle to get up them. At Latheron I said a fond farewell to the A9 as it branched off towards Thurso and the port of Scrabster whilst I continued on its' cloned brother, the A99 towards Wick. I met a cyclist chatting to a car driver...LEJOGger perhaps with his back-up? Yep, wasn't long before Conor caught up with me. He was on his last day and it was interesting to know he had a friend contemplating running it - he should get some good tips from my blog!
At Lybster they started drilling just yesterday at Scotlands' first land-based oil rig and I could clearly see the huge metal frame as I ran past. It wasn't far after Lybster that I was finally able to turn off the main road and instead head across the last north east peninsular of Scotland on a minor road, more akin to a Roman one as it was dead-staright for at least the first 5 miles or so. Passing the odd stone house and farm (many derelict) plus Broch remains : these are iron age stone mounds of two walls used either as fortifications or dwellings. The sun did try to come out which made the scenery look much nicer, albeit it was just rough moor only able to support sheep grazing. After about 3 miles the road entered forestry plantations and those pesky flies returned - they don't bite just simply buzz in their hundreds around my head and appear to enjoy a game of dare to see who can land on my nose or for bonus points, under my sunglasses!
The one 'attraction' for today were The Grey Cairns of Camster : two of the best preserved chambered stone tombs in Britain which date back more than 5,000 years to the Neolithic times. Both had open entrances so you could go inside but I must admit I found it really difficult to bend down and crawl through the tiny gaps - my legs simply would not co-operate that well! From then on it was simply acase of plodding on down the road. I could see huge peaked mountains to my left and there were a few wind farms dotted over the open expanse of moor. The birds were back in earnest from the massive buzzards 'mewing' overhead to the alarm calls of lapwing and curlew plus stonechats whose song simply sounds exactly like a couple of stones being knocked together : they're really pretty birds with red chests and black caps and hang around on the fence wires or gorse bushes.
The road led gradually downhill towards Watten and the Loch bearing the same name. At this point I was trying to guess what my last B&B would be like : top of the list would be a TV in my room and a bath! Second would be the bath, third the TV and fourth would be just a shower.....reality was the 2nd choice and having obtained the added luxury of bath foam I was really looking forward to a good long soak. Unfortunately the water heater hadn't been turned on so I was brought back down with a huge thump!

Mileage 20.82 and time 3.58

Total Mileage 1,187.28