We were up at 7.00, and had a good cooked breakfast at 8.00. We enquired as to whether the eggs on offer were from the hens we could see running around outside, but were told no, the hens had yet to lay them!
We left at 9.00 and drove up to Inverness, stopping in an industrial area towards the edge of town in which Pauline knew of some convenient banks and a petrol station. We then carried on, crossing the Kessock Bridge which spans the Moray Firth, and stopped at a tourist information point just on the other side in order to pick up some information. While we were there we met a Dutch couple who had been with us at dinner the previous evening.
We carried on up the A9, which goes up to Thurso staying close to the coast for most of the way. At one point we could see some oil platforms out to sea. Progress was relatively leisurely, as we were past the last stretch of dual carriageway and parts of the road were quite slow and winding, which didn't help us when passing the many cyclists we encountered on the way, at least some of them presumably doing the Lands End to John O'Groats route. We stopped for lunch in the village of Dunbeath, buying food at the village shop.
Having made fairly good progress, we had plenty of time to spare before going to our bed & breakfast for the night. Our first stop was at John O'Groats, famous for being the village (if indeed it is large enough to be so described) on the British mainland most distant from Land's End. It is named after a fifteenth century Dutchman, Jan de Groot, whose chief claim to fame is that he ran a ferry service across to South Ronaldsay on Orkney, charging the princely sum of fourpence, or one groat. We looked briefly at the signpost, at which people could part with their hard-earned money (I forget how much, but substantially more than one groat) in order to be photographed alongside a distance pointer to a place of their choice. The wind was rather strong, however, and we moved into the shelter of the obligatory souvenir shop for a while before moving on.
Our next stop was at Duncansby Head, the most north-easterly point on mainland Britain. The drive out there was my first of many encounters with single-track roads on the holiday, upon reaching the parking place we ventured outside for a walk along the clifftops to view the pillars known as Duncansby Stacks. Given some of the recent weather, we accumulated not insignificant amounts of mud on the walk, but we were not too worried, knowing that we were likely to encounter plenty more before the holiday was over.
We then drove back to the west and up to Dunnet Head, most northerly point of the mainland, atop cliffs over 100m high. Unfortunately conditions were not particularly clear, but we could see the southernmost islands of the Orkney archipelago through the mist. Some measure of just how extreme the weather can be there is the fact that in the worst storms, waves have been known to break the windows surrounding the lighthouse bulb, despite its being over 120m above sea level. Alongside the lighthouse are some remnants of the wartime fortifications, surely one of the bleaker posts to which men were posted.
We reached our B&B, sited on a farm and run by a Mrs McDonald (not particularly old), at 5.30. After a rest, we went out again at 6.45 in search of some food in Thurso, a couple of miles back down the road. We did not find a large choice of eateries, and had a meal of southern-style pork or lasagne in a rather deserted club. We were not inspired by the desserts on offer and headed back to the B&B, which was just as well as we were offered tea and a supply of cakes upon our return. We retired to bed at 10.00.