Day 76: Dornoch

Distance: 7.5 miles
Virtual walker: Larry

Woke up this morning to the sound of rain on the roof. Since we had only a short walk ahead of us, we decided to take our time getting ready in the hopes the weather would improve. Poor strategy. While we slowly ate breakfast, then packed our rucksacks, the rain got heavier, and an
accompanying wind blew up.


From our room, we could see our destination, the pretty town of Dornoch, across the firth only a couple of miles away. But to get there, we had to walk a couple of miles west along the busy A9 road to the Dornoch bridge, then across, then a few miles east on a quiet lane into town.


The A9 is a busy, noisy, road. It's the only highway north from Inverness, so it gets plenty of lorry traffic carrying cases of Irn Bru to the thirsty citizens of Thurso and Wick. Unfortunately, for the next four days we'll see a lot of the A9, since there's pretty much no other way to get from place to place this far north. At least there is a bit of a shoulder on the part we walked today, and a verge that we could use for escape when the really big vehicles came thundering along.


Once over the bridge, we were able to hop a guard rail, scurry down a little hill, and slip through a hole in a fence to a nice quiet path. That took us to a quiet lane which led to town. As soon as we left the highway, the rain started to ease up, and by the time we arrived we even saw little bits of lightish grey sky!


When we started this blog, we invited our friends and family to join us for a segment of our walk. Lots of you thought about it, but as time went by almost everyone dropped out for one reason or another: budget, job, schedule, love of not walking every day. The exception, of course, was Michael and Jan, who walked with us two hundred miles through the Highlands, before veering off (in a car!) to visit Jan's ancestral homeland on the isle of Ulva. And now we have someone else joining us for the last ten day push to John O'Groats: frequent commenter and long time friend Larry!


Larry would like to be here with us in person, like Michael and Jan. But, like so many people, Larry has a job, and a family, and other commitments that got in the way. So instead of flying here to the north of Scotland, he'll be joining us virtually, covering the same mileage that we'll be covering, on the same days. Like us, Larry will be covering 130 miles in ten days. Unlike us, Larry goes to work every day, so he doesn't have the kind of time we do. To make it work, he'll be running the distance. He's already four days in, having started on our day 73 with a seventeen mile run. Today, if all went according to plan, he had a nice easy eight miler. But tomorrow is tough: seventeen miles. A long walk, and a tough run. Larry, it is great to have you along!


I don't want to jinx anything, but the weather forecasts are calling for sunshine. Not just tomorrow, but for all of next week! Our fingers are crossed.

Location:Castle St,Dornoch,United Kingdom

Day 75: Tain

Distance: 12.7 miles
Drams: wee

It's hard to believe that we're a week away from John o'Groats. We knew this last stretch would be a long slog on roads. At least today they were pretty quiet. Our host, Ali, in Alness gave us back roads directions to Tain, where he grew up.


For a while we were parallel to the Cromarty Firth and had a nice view of the oil drilling platforms with this big old church in the foreground.

The weather continues to be unseasonably cold and rainy, but Al and I agree that we would rather have it cold than hot. It's really very good walking weather. I have noticed that I have really weird hand tan though. There's a clear line where the cuff of my rain jacket sleeve lies. It's worse than farmer tan!

So the walk today was pretty uneventful. We saw some cows who seemed very curious about us. The moved en masse down their field to check us out.


Then they followed along for a bit, occasionally running away then turning and following again. It was very strange.


We also passed a house that was flying this flag.


No idea what that is all about and we didn't stick around to ask questions.

We reached Tain in time for lunch, so stopped at the Royal Hotel for a nice lunch. Here's a picture of Al I took there. I really like it!


Our plan for the short day was to get to the B&B early and go down to the Glenmorangie Distillery for a tour. It worked out great. The tour was not as good as the one at Glengoyne, but the whisky was very good. The only problem is that you only got one wee taste, and you weren't able to choose which one. We tasted the 12 year old that spent 2 years in sauternes barrels.


Our tour guide, Connie, was lovely, but lacked the big, and loud, personality of David, our guide at Glengoyne.


Glenmorangie does have the most beautiful stills, 12 in all. They added 4 a few years back when LVMH, the French luxury goods giant, took them over so they could up production to 6 million litres of whisky a year.


But the most important thing we learned was how to pronounce the name. The second G isn't hard, it's soft. So it's Glen-morange-ee. The middle is like orange but with an m.

So that was day 75. We have another short day tomorrow to Dornoch. We will spend almost the entire day on a big A road because Dornoch is across the Dornoch Firth from here, and the only way over is a 2 mile long bridge on the highway. We hear Dornoch is a really pretty little town, so we should have time to check it out.

Location:Morangie Rd,Tain,United Kingdom

Day 74: Alness

Distance: 10.8 miles
Whiskys tasted: zero

Oops, it's morning now and we didn't post last night! The plan was to go for an early dinner, then come back and do some blogging. On the way out, Ali, out host, stopped us. "Have a gin and tonic before you go". Not wanting to be rude, Dawn had one, and I had three. I think. David, Ali's partner, and Fiona, another guest, joined us, and all five of us went out to The Bengal for some excellent Bangladeshi food. By the time we returned it was close to midnight, and neither of us were able to stay awake long enough to blog. That's why the blog is late.


Fiona is from Nottinghamshire, working in Scotland as a structural engineer on the big oil rigs that they build and repair here. In the picture above you can see a few of these rigs in the Cormarty Firth, one of the deepest and most protected natural harbors in the world. Check out the sailboats on the left side of the picture to get an idea of the scale. They bring rigs here for repair from all over the world; one was recently brought all the way from Brazil. This is great for the local economy, but if you want a room, you'd best book well ahead.


The walk itself yesterday was a simple ten mile stroll down a secondary road. We could see rain off in the distance all day, but we had fine weather over our heads, even getting some sun now and then. There were views of the firth all the way along, including the view you see here of the main road, the A9, making its way over the water. Thirty years ago, it would take two hours to drive from here to Inverness, because this bridge, and the Kessock bridge pictured in yesterday's post, didn't exist. Now the drive takes twenty five minutes.


This is the Alness Old Parish Church, one of the few medieval churches still standing in Scotland. We walked past here just before getting to our B&B. It's seen better days.


After checking in, we walked a quarter mile down the road to the shore of the firth, where the Dalmore distillery is located. We got there around three, hoping for a tour and a taste, but alas, the last tour was already done. I'm hoping for better luck tomorrow at Glenmorangie.


And that's enough blogging. Time for breakfast. Today is another relatively short walk along a back road to the town of Tain. It's raining outside, but maybe it will stop before we get out there.

Location:Obsdale Rd,Alness,United Kingdom

Day 73: Tulloch Castle

Distance: 16.4 miles
Rooms: 7

Today I ordered a full Scottish breakfast, with two poached eggs, minus the black pudding and haggis. "No haggis?", said our server. "You've got to have the haggis!". So, for the fifth or sixth time in my life, I had haggis. So far, I've really not liked either the texture or taste much, but this was a whole new experience - the best haggis yet, by far. I learned from Brian, back on day 56, that the best haggis comes from local butchers, but the best is not always served at a B&B breakfast. And when I asked about it, sure enough, John, our host, told me that he serves Cockburn's haggis from Dingwall, even though it's a little more expensive. Next to us, from Idaho, was an avid piper and his wife. They were here for expert level lessons at the National Piping Center in Glasgow, and to do some touring around. In addition to playing the bagpipes, he is a haggis aficionado and gave the Cockburn haggis a thumbs up. So it wasn't just me. Unfortunately, I have no pictures from breakfast, so instead you get a picture from laundry time yesterday.


We headed out into the cold Scottish "summer", and made our way out of Inverness, and over the Kessock bridge, seen here from the north side looking back toward Inverness.


Our route took us west along the north shore of Beauly Firth; we could look south over the water and see the hills from which we'd come a couple of days earlier. That was the day with over twenty miles of distance, almost five thousand feet of climbing, howling gale force winds, and driving rain. Jan and Michael were still with us then, and the day took its toll on Michael: he may be more Compeed than human now. We miss their company, but hear that they are enjoying themselves on the Isle of Skye. Fortunately, our day today was much nicer: we had only a little hail, a touch of rain, and twenty knot winds.


Once we moved away from the water, we were worried that we'd get stuck walking along some A-roads. But the National Cycle Network came to our rescue, with bike paths, doubling as footways, parallel to all the A-roads. As a result our walk today was straightforward, if a little boring. We did have some nice views of Ben Wyvis, a monolithic Munro forming a nice backdrop to the gently rolling farmland.


And we saw these cows, just chilling out. They'd found a nice spot sheltered from the wind, and with some passing sunshine.


We made good time on the tarmac, and were soon having scones in downtown Dingwall. A half hour later, we were at the Tulloch Castle.


Like I said yesterday, we ended up here because it was the only room we could find after a boiler fail at our scheduled B&B. The castle's credentials are pretty cool: it dates from the twelfth century, it's had colorful masters over the centuries, and it is said to be haunted. But on the bad side its TripAdvisor reviews are pretty mixed.


But it worked out great for us. We have a whole flat to ourselves, taking up the whole second floor of one wing. You can see Dawn peeking around the last room in our hall. There's two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a claw foot tub, three closets, a kitchen, a dining room, and a spacious living room. It's pretty sweet!


The master bedroom is big enough to be a nice place to stay just on its own.


In total, there are four writing desks. We didn't use any of them. But we did watch Bullseye on the Challenge network.


Coming up are two days with two distilleries. Tomorrow, it's a short walk to Alness, giving us time, I hope, to check out Dalmore. And the next day, another short walk, to Tain, home of Glenmorangie.

Location:Tulloch Castle Dr,Dingwall,United Kingdom

Day 72: A Slog to Inverness

Distance: 20.9 miles
Wind speed: 30 knots, gusts to 50 knots
Anniversary: 24th

Yesterday's post described a terrific walk: fair skies, sunshine, warmth, incredible views, reasonable distance, benches. It was sweet. Today was not like that. So let's just table the walk itself and talk about what a good time we had over breakfast.


You are probably thinking that's George Clooney between Jan and Dawn. A common mistake. But if you look closely you can see that our host is younger, stronger, and better looking. He also has a much more Scottish name: Alastair Ferguson. As I said yesterday, he and his wife Vanessa (sorry ladies) run a great B&B. Our fellow guest, whose name I sadly can't remember, was also great company. He's wearing the scarf of his hometown team, Borussia Dortmund, who won the German football championship this year.


We lingered over breakfast as long as we could, but the time came to put on our rain gear and strike out for Inverness.


The nicest views of the day came near the start, looking back at Urquhart Castle, as we started the climb out of Drumnadrochit.


We didn't appreciate it at the time, but the long walk up the hill in the wood was the most pleasant path of the day. After yesterday, we just assumed that we'd end up on a sunny ridge with beautiful views. Nope.


The path took us away from Loch Ness and up more than a thousand feet to a plateau, where it made its way through endless moors and forests. We started off walking in a light breeze. By the time we'd gotten up high, the breeze had turned into a gale force wind, with strong gusts blowing us all over the path. I've never been outside in such strong winds. Fortunately, the wind was at our back, otherwise, I'm not sure how we could have made forward progress.


After hours of plodding through the rainy, windy, viewless terrain, we had finally covered half our distance and were ready for lunch. Unfortunately, we were unable to conjure up a bench, and instead took refuge sitting on the ground next to a wall. The wind shifted just enough so that we caught the brunt of it. The rain started falling harder. We ate quickly, and got back underway.


Michael's blisters continue to be a problem, but with one day left nothing could stop him. It would have been nice to have some views, or at least nicer weather, because nothing takes MAK's mind off of foot pain like photography. But he pushed through, as we all did, and finally we made it to Inverness. I'm sure the walk through the park on the Ness Islands is beautiful in good weather, but today I'm just glad the bridges stayed intact and the winds didn't sweep us into the raging River Ness.


After we crossed this bridge, a young blonde with tight jeans and knee high leather boots came running past yelling, "Barney, Barney", so loud that we could hear her over the wind! Barney is her beagle, and he was lost. We promised to keep an eye out, but my guess is that most dogs in Inverness which go missing end up eaten. By this.


A few hours later, we had champagne glasses in hand toasting Michael and Jan for completing their walk from Edinburgh to Inverness! We really enjoyed their company for the past couple of weeks, and I'm sure all of our readers have enjoyed Michael's terrific photos. Though, just to be sure there is no misunderstanding: the picture of Nessie above is all mine!


Sorry the post is a day late. We procrastinated since we had a day off here in Inverness. But it worked out for us, as we found a perfect spot to write the blog: Leakey's, the largest second hand bookstore in Scotland. The space is amazing, an old church heated by a huge wood burning stove, books crammed into every nook and cranny, and a cafe on the top floor serving Espresso and delicious home made cakes.


Tonight we are having our second nice dinner in a row: this one to celebrate two dozen years of marriage! I am so lucky to be in love with a woman who will walk with me for over a thousand miles, even in a Scottish "summer". She is the best!


Tomorrow we are back on the road, walking to the town of Dingwall. When we told our waitress last night, she seemed surprised that anyone would go to Dingwall on purpose. We've had good news and bad news since then. The bad news is that we received a call from our Dingwall B&B that her boiler had exploded, and can't be fixed until Thursday, so there is no heat or hot water. There is a chance of frost here tonight, so we decided to look for another place. The good news is that the only place available is a suite at the Tulloch Castle. So that's where we're staying tomorrow!

Location:Hill St,Inverness,United Kingdom

Farewell guest post from Michael and Jan

Jan & Michael signing off here. Words and pictures give a glimpse of Dawn and Al's days but simply cannot convey the epic journey they have undertaken, and have now nearly finished! On top of this Dawn and Al are great trail company, and have been unparalleled in squeezing us through tight fence holes, wayfinding in difficult spots, and teaching us about both "Al-miles" and cask ales (in that order!). We can't thank them enough, they're great!




We walked into Inverness late this afternoon with mixed feelings. While our legs and feet are oh so grateful to reach the end of our trail, we'll miss the fun and adventure we've had everyday for the past two weeks since taking our first steps out of Edinburgh. We wish Dawn and Al sunshine, good trails, safe travel and all success in completing their fantastic LEJOG journey!

Location:Inverness

Day 71: Drumnadrochit

Distance: 14.8 miles
Nessie sightings: zero :(

Today was one of the nicest walks of our entire trip. After two days of rain, the morning dawned sunny with blue skies. We had said since the beginning that we can handle lots of rain, but it would be great to have one nice day on Loch Lomand, and one nice day on Loch Ness. We've had both!


We started with the best breakfast we've had since Edinburgh! The coffee was good, there were croissants and cheese included with the cold breakfast, and the cooked breakfast was also good. I even enjoyed my morning chunk of haggis! While eating we watched the sunshine and looked forward to getting out in it.


The day was as nice outside as it looked from inside. It was cool, but not cold, perfect weather for a thousand foot climb through the forest. At the top, we followed a short spur path to our first lookout, the stone seat. The views were amazing. From the stone seat, the path continued high above Loch Ness, with one incredible view after another.


We were a bit high to get good views of the monster splashing around, but we knew she was there. Perhaps on the far side, near the Spital of Boleskine.


The main thing that slowed us down was the scenery. Both Michael and I couldn't help but take one picture after another, trying to capture what was all around us. Unfortunately, or maybe not, you really need to be there to see it all: the color of the water, the forests on the far bank, the snow topped peak hills just beyond, and the sky above that. It's just too much to capture in photos. But we did try.


Michael's blisteritis continues to plague him, especially by the end of the day. But, as you can see below, he is still on his feet and walking.


We made it to Drumnadrochit around 4:30. Our B&B host, Alastair, gave us a ride a couple of miles down the road to the most famous castle on Loch Ness, and one of the most famous in the country. If you've ever seen pictures of the loch, you've likely seen Urquhart Castle.


Alastair is a retired Glasgow detective who looks the part. He's a great guy, and seems happy enough to put up with us. He and his wife, Vanessa, are wonderful hosts.


Tomorrow the weather is looking fair, probably not as nice as today, but hopefully better than yesterday. We have a long walk into Inverness. From there, Michael and Jan will head back to Edinburgh (in a car!) and Dawn and I will get ready for our last nine day push to John O' Groats.

Location:The Shore of Loch Ness