Date: 23/06/2022 Helmsdale to John o' Groats

Perfect weather for the final day, not a cloud in the sky and no wind.
We had a choice of routes to get to John o' Groats, 75 miles through the Strath of Kildonan or 52 miles on the A9. It turned out we didn't have a choice, Nick told us we were taking the long route to make the length of our trip just over 1000 miles.
It was a good choice anyway, the A897 out of Helmsdale was only a single track road but in good condition and it followed the River Helmsdale along with the railway line on the other side of the river. We had set off at 8:30 and seemed to share the road with fishermen, we passed a number of groups meeting up by the riverside.
There was an occasional heavy goods vehicle but we made good time. It was a gradual climb up to the head of the pass at 196m and we now started to follow the Halladale River down.
The railway line turned east at Forsinard while we continued north, meeting up with Rodney, Janice & Lizzie a short while later.
Coming down towards Melvich we could see the bright blue sea of the Pentland Firth, the end is in sight!
We turned east at Melvich and had a lunch break at Reay. We had plenty of time and stopped again at Dunnet Bay for an icecream. The weather was still good but the wind had picked up and appeared to be in our face as we made the final few miles to John o' Groats.
It was a very popular place today and we had to queue up to get our turn under the signpost, Rodney had got a bottle of fizz to shower over us in celebration of a successful trip.
Rodney, Janice & Lizzie were booked on the evening ferry to go back to Orkney while Norman, Nick & I were staying the night here and getting the lunchtime ferry next day so we could cycle the 15 miles back into Kirkwall and arrive at the Orkney Blyde Trust building during opening hours.

75 miles with 2700 ft of climbing in 5 hrs 10, avg 14.3 mph