Day 9 - Kyle of Sutherland to John O'Groats

I am back and so it’s me (Justyn) writing up the final day, apologies for the delay in typing this up. 

The final day really starts with the night before as having given Joy my brief update on how day 8 had been I headed to the tent and got my stuff sorted for the next day as with the planned departure time of 06:30 I wanted to have everything ready.

Finally settled down to sleep around 22:00 hrs with the alarm set for 04:50 hrs as didn’t want to miss the lads in the morning.  Sadly I was yet again deprived the luxury of a decent sleep as awoke at 02:10 with the need to get my arse to the toilets ASAP!!!

Got back to the tent, took another Imodium and tried to settle down but just dozed till 04:30 when decided may as well get up.

There was a marked difference this morning with the whole camp up early and everyone moving with purpose as we all have coaches / taxis etc to catch at the finish.  The morning was dry , the clouds high and it felt warmer than we had had for several days but I stuck with the clothes I had prepared the night before.

Had 5 slices of brown bread toast with marmalade on (no butter) for breakfast as figured that would be the best option in view of my dicky tummy which was still giving me trouble (more Imodium taken).  

Met the lads down at the bikes and we headed off the start at 06:35hrs, the bike racks where only a quarter full so could tell that most people where already on the road.

The first half of the route basically headed straight north on a lovely quiet single track road which with the complete lack of traffic the cyclist made their own.  Initial pace of the group was pretty high (sitting around 20mph) as we swept past other riders, this was mostly being driven by Neil and I went with the flow contributing with him until the rest of the group said to dial it back a bit as we had plenty of time. 

An hour in and the morning was turning really nice with occasional breaks in the cloud and the road generally sweeping along with undulating terrain which provided fantastic viewpoints of blue skies above highland hills either side, some crowned with clouds and others not.  We passed lovely still lochs with reflections of the surroundings and skyline in them so stopped to take some photo’s.

Reached the first pit stop around 30 miles but did not hang about as the midges where in force there so we all grabbed stuff for jersey pockets (biscuits for me as should be safe!) and headed straight back out.

Around 40 miles I started to feel really really positive and was truly enjoying riding my bike (something which there has not been enough of on this trip) and drinking in the surroundings.  Even when we reached Bettyhill 10 miles later and turned to head East along the coast (now riding into a 15mph wind) I was still hugely enjoying just being out on the bike and kept getting waves of happiness as I contemplated how we finally had some nice weather and were nearly finished.

The terrain now became quite challenging as we had six 300ft climbs with some additional bumps to conquer, all head on into the wind.  Second pit stop at 70 miles and whilst we did not hang about I threw caution to the wind and ate a sandwich with Mexican cheese, dried onion, chillies and bacon in it as it sounded fantastic.  It was certainly spicy and very nice but probably not my wisest choice under the circumstances.

The group got into chain gang mode for the last 30 miles and whilst we didn’t push hard we kept a reasonable pace going, conserving effort and sharing the load.

About 3 miles out from John O’Groats I was on the front and could see the finish so started celebrating putting my hands up and giving out a big “woop” “woop”, looked behind at the bunch and they were all beaming with smiles from ear to ear.

Crossing the finish line I celebrated with my arms aloft feeling an immense sense of achievement.

I have a lot more to say, especially on the thankyou front and want to share some of my reflections with you all but I am getting tired now so will stop here for now and continue the blog in the next few days as hopefully will get some more photo’s from others to share as well.

Day 9 Stats

Start: Kyle of Sutherland

Finish: John O’Groats

Distance: 104 miles

Climbing: 1,548 metres

Average speed: 14.2 mph

Duration: 7 hours, 18mins