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Day 113 of the End to End was the greyest yet. I began at Golval in what seemed like a break in the weather. It set the pattern for the walking day as the rain and mist came in waves. The route joined the main road along the North Coast. The low cloud and mist was rolling in from the sea and by the time I met up with Bob near the border of Caithness visibility was very low indeed.
Caithness is the last county of this LEJOG, just as Cornwall was the first, and at the moment both seem to be experiencing wet and windy weather.

After a brief rest at a lay-by on the A836, I walked down into Reay. This mile was sponsored by Patrick and Lucy of LCSB. In the small shop I asked about the Market Cross I’d heard about but without success. A bit further on Reay Golf Course welcomes all sorts of non golf related travellers for drinks and snack. No one was playing golf due to the sea mist but we received a warm welcome and enjoyed the hot drinks and cakes.

Unfortunately the parish church next door to the golf course wasn’t open. I did finally manage to find the old burial ground where a burial vault houses the Reay Cross Slab. This is an 8th century Pictish stone but there’s no access to the vault so I had to make do with the description given outside.

I walked onto a rest stop at Achvarasdal Lodge where we ate our picnic and I had a snooze as the drizzle continued.
After about half an hour I set off again on the final two and a half miles of the day down to Shebster via the NCN route 1. Such a grey day meant there had been no butterflies although there were plenty of flowers on the verges.
We drove onto Thurso and looked at some potential routes for tomorrow. The weather forecast continues to be wet for the next couple of days and it will be a question of making decisions based on how this turns out at the time. We are now 4 days from John O’Groats.

From Psalm 50

God, the Holy One, speaks and summons the earth, from the rising of the sun to where it sets.

The day belongs to God, whatever the weather!

God grant a quiet night and a peaceful end. 

JAL 08.08.2019
Day 113 of the End to End from Golval to Shebster.

Day 112 of the End to End took up where I finished yesterday, a mile north of Forsinard. It was cloudy but dry and a helpful breeze was blowing the midges away. The Flow Country goes on covering as it does most of the inland part of the far North of Scotland. Today the river Halladale was flowing very fast and there were signs along the banks and along the small burns flowing into it that it had been higher yesterday and overnight with the heavy rain we’d had.

I regularly see Herons and Buzzards on my walks, and did so again today. I met Bob coming back towards me and we carried on along the A897 rather than taking the back round down Strath Halladale. This was to increase our mileage today as we are expecting more adverse weather before the weekend. As that might limit miles we can walk on those days we tried to do a few more today.

Near the War Memorial I met Sandra Train, now 80 years old, who is a local author. She wrote about her experiences growing up in Halladale as a child, and of the evacuees who stayed with her family during WW2. Her family lived in a basic Croft without electricity or running water she told me as we walked along together to the next lay-by.
She introduced me to the owner of the bunkhouse. I later passed the bunkhouse further along the road. The building was formerly the mill and still has its mill wheel.
I was now on the last few miles of a longer than usual walk. We finished at Golval and then drove back to Melvich again to stay, this time at the Melvich Hotel.

From Psalm 139

You see me, whether I am working or resting; you know everything I do.
Even before I speak, you already know what I will say.

The End to End is full of surprise meetings and encounters of all kinds. People generously share their stories. Places come alive and lodge in my memory.

God grant a quiet night and a peaceful end.

JAL 07.08.2019
Day 112 of the End to End, North of Forsinard to Golval.

Day 111 of the End to End would take the route across the Flow Country. One of my main reasons for walking this way, apart from avoiding the A9, was to cross the Flow Country, a large area of blanket bog. It is the largest in Europe and ecologically an important resource.
My walk started at the junction near Kinbrace Station on a bright morning. I was walking along the same road as yesterday, but there were fewer signs of human habitation, both ancient and recent. The train did go past on the Far North Line. The views of Loch an Ruathair were lovely. Bob met me before the summit of the pass to Forsinard. Not long after that it started raining.

We saw the clouds sweeping across the Flow. As a result of the wind direction my right leg was getting wetter than my left.
Bob had mentioned the Forsinard station cafe and as we were already quite wet it seemed a good place to dry off. There was a sheep guarding the door but we managed to get inside. Its simple menu required extensive sampling and I’m glad to report that soup, scones and chocolate cake were all excellent. The sheep kept guard while we ate, even dosing off on the porch. We dried out as the thunder rumbled on around us.

During a brief break in the weather we walked down to the station where the RSPB have an exhibition about the Flow Country. Two trains came through.
The rain and thunder started again. We sat in the car until it cleared up and then I legged it down the road for a further mile until the rain started again. It looks like the next few days may follow this pattern.

We drove through to the North Coast to a B&B near Melvich. Unfortunately the low cloud obscured the views of the coast but it was out there somewhere.

From Psalm 29

God’s voice is heard over the sea.

Thunder is glorious: it is God rumbling over the ocean.
The Laws of Physics make for an amazing universe. We are in awe of phenomena like thunder. Rain makes the Flow Country what it is. Blanket bog is important. The connections between all of these physical aspects of the world echo the complexity of the Holy Creator.

God grant a quiet night and a peaceful end. 

JAL 06.08.2019
Day 111 of the End to End from Kinbrace to North of Forsinard.

Day 110 of the End to End was another train day. This meant Bob was able to walk with me for the whole day. We began at Helmsdale station and took the morning train to Kildonan Station where we started walking. The weather was a lot brighter than we expected.
The walk was straightforward enough along a single track road and apart from a few timber lorries, not that busy. The valley is quiet and has a few farms and some sheep who cross back and forth at will.
The foliage has changed: the foxgloves are almost finished. There’s an occasional small heath orchid still flowering and we even saw a dozen or so Painted Ladies this far in land.
There’s plenty of evidence of earlier human occupation in the valley from the Stone Age onwards. Heaps of stones of various sorts from hut circles to burial mounds to Brochs. Some of the streams featured in the gold rush of the 1860s. There were other signs of the highland clearances as well.

We made good time to Kinbrace Station and even had time for a look around and a picnic before our return train arrived. It is a very small village. Not far from the station the tin chapel of the former United Free Church, erected in 1925, is now used as the village hall. One of the local residents lent me the key and I was able to look inside the simple woodlined building.

The train journey back to Helmsdale was soon completed and we took a few moments to look around the local museum and have some local ice-cream.
Back at the excellent Helmsdale Hostel the evening was spent exchanging End to Enders tales with one hiker going North and two Australian cyclists going South. It’s now one week to John O’Groats.

From Psalm 91

Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Holy One.

Here at Helmsdale Hostel we are well sheltered. Each of us has our own stories to tell of the adventured involved. Rest is important in order to undertake the next stage of the route, whatever that might be.

God grant us a quiet night and a peaceful end.

JAL 05.08.2019
Day 110 of the End to End from Kildonan Station to Kinbrace Station.

Day 109 of the End to End was via Glen Loth to Kildonan. The walk started at the ‘Last Wolf in Sutherland’ memorial lay-by. The road to Glen Loth rose steeply from the A9. There was a small group of vehicles involved in road maintenance in the first mile or so, but other than that I had the whole road to myself. Its patchwork surface wound its way through a green and rocky landscape. There were a couple of Brochs and a standing stone: evidence of human influence on this landscape for several millenia. There was more recent evidence of occupation, but the lone farmhouse was a ruin. Sheep are farmed in the area and maybe the old sheep folds are still used.
The road climbed up the Glen to the pass over several miles. As I climbed a cloud was pushing its way over a mountain to my right. The effect was to create the ‘tablecloth’ I’d once seen on Table Mountain in Cape Town.

There is that moment almost every day of the walk when I think I might not get to the end. Often it’s on strenuous uphill sections when my legs ache and I wonder why I’ve taken this route. Predictably this happened again today on the way up to the pass out of Glen Loth.
At the top of the pass there was an information panel concerning the highland clearances in this area. It would not be the last evidence of those, I was sure.
Bob was coming up from Kildonan and we met near a pine wood which, the uprooted and broken trees indicated, had obviously been decimated by high winds at some point in the past. We ate our picnic on the edge of the wood.
We continued downhill to Kildonan Station. I has just remarked how we’d not seen any deer when Bob noticed two stags watching us. Kildonan Station marked the end of the days walking but we made a brief side visit to Kildonan Church. I was glad to find it open. Near the old Manse there was a large cross slab with a simple cross carved into it, much over grown with lichen. The nearby Kildonan Burn was the focus of a gold rush in 1869.

We had our fish super at La Mirage restaurant in Helmsdale which I last visited with my Dad in 2012.

From Psalm 100

Know that God is the Holy One:
God made us, and we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

I sang, somewhat untunefully, a version of Psalm 100 in the empty church at Kildonan. It was a simple place, well kept, although I wasn’t sure how often it was still used. Communion Table, font and pulpit its simple furnishings, speak of generations of a local community gathered here.

God grant a quiet night and a peaceful end. 

JAL 04.08.2019
Day 109 of the End to End, Lothbeg road Lay-by to Kildonan Station.

Day 108 of the End to End, that started at Carn Laith Broch, was somewhat perilous at times. We had spent considerable time researching the route. I did not want to spend all day walking along the verge beside the A9. The John O’Groats Trail is an option but its perils need to be considered. It’s not a fully marked Way so finding the route can be a challenge, but then we’ve managed poorly marked routes before. However, this one also has additional advertised perils like routes you can’t use at high tide, places where the route is squeezed between the railway and the edge of the cliff and other places where you need to be prepared to cross a 3 metre wide stream. Having considered all of this, we decided to use the John O’Groats Trail in the morning to Brora and after lunch along the Brora links. These proved perilous enough.

First, cattle can be perilous. They were big and mooed a bit. But that was all the cattle peril for today. There were other creatures, all less perilous: significant number of butterflies for example as have been reported inany places, taking advantage of a fine day and lots of flowering plants. There were also common seals lying on the beach in various places, a total of 20 altogether. Second, the tide was coming in, but Bob thought we had enough time to make it along the low route rather than the higher route for when the tide is in.

At Brora we had a picnic before I set off up the second part of the route north of the town. The path goes along the side of the golf course and was reasonably easy to follow and frequently placed benches were welcome. There were more butterflies in the dunes and even people swimming in the sea.

The most perilous part was being dive bombed by Arctic Terns near the dunes. There is a protected area here, but the Terns seem to take exception to any one coming along the path and I’d no wish to disturb them.
Bob had found the footpath off the golf course, which wasn’t easy. He met me in time to accompany me to the A9. Here the road peril started. I needed to do about 3 miles on the A9 because the Trail did not have many access points that fitted our requirements, and I didn’t want to ford the stream or get squeezed on the cliffs.
We have a high visibility vest for road walking and while the traffic is fast there’s not too much of it, and the verge is usually reasonable. Bob came to meet me and after three miles we stopped at the lay-by before Lothbeg. It’s a poignant spot as it includes the memorial to the last Wolf killed in Sutherland over 3 centuries ago. There are moves to reintroduce wolves to the Highlands. Maybe the remembered She wolf will not be the last to live in Sutherland after all.

Back at Helmsdale Hostel, an excellent place we’ve stayed before, we even got our old room back. Dropping a bottle of smoothie on my toe brought to an end a perilous day.

From Psalm 91
God will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge.

The cormorants hang their wings out to dry. A feather or two blows across the sand. The Arctic Terns spin in the air, clattering a noisy warning. These are the birds that God has counted and who’s feathered wings provide a refuge.

God grant a quiet night and a peaceful end.

JAL 03.08.2019
Day 108 of the End to End, Carn Laith Broch to Lothbeg Lay-by.

Day 107 of the End to End was another very beautiful day. It started at the path to Creag Bheag from the A9. This was another of the A9 avoidance routes of the John O’Groats Trail. We went through a small piece of woodland and a couple of fields alongside the railway. Bob came with me and turned back at Kirkton level crossing. I continued down the track into Balblair Wood, which borders the North shore of Loch Fleet.

We first visited this wood on Bob’s walk in 2003. It was a bit earlier in the year and we were lucky to see the single flowered wintergreen, a rare plant of which this is one location. However, being later in the year, there were no wintergreen today, but there were creeping ladies tresses that also prefer older pine woods.

I met Bob on the road into Golspie, where we decided to have a fish and chip lunch, followed by local ice cream, made in Brora.
The afternoon walk from Golspie was along the coast, past Dunrobin Castle. It was a beautiful route, full of butterflies. Our second busiest day for Painted Ladies, totalling 105 and 36 small tortoiseshell. I identified 8 different species altogether, and I also saw two common seals.

The path was lined with Ragwort, thistles and Rose Bay Willowherb, all popular with the butterflies and very colourful. Bob met me on the path and we walked to Carn Laith Broch where today’s walk ended. It is an Iron Age structure under the care of Historic Scotland and has wonderful views of the coast.

From Psalm 77

Your path led through the sea, your way through the mighty waters, though your footprints were invisible.

Many folks are still waiting tonight for flood waters to subside or for routes cut by flood water to be restored. We think of them.

God grant a quiet night and a peaceful end.

JAL 02.08.2019
Day 107 of the End to End from the A9 North of The Mound to Carn Laith Broch.

It’s day 106 of the End to End and rather than biblical interpretation I’m doing natural history.
The Common Seal is more common looking than the Grey Seal, who has the large nosed look, so it’s common seals we see today at Loch Fleet, an RSPB nature reserve.
To get there its three to four miles from Dornoch. On the outskirts of the town a small low building, now the local Chiropractor, used to be the station of the Dornoch Light Railway which, a century ago, bought passengers from The Mound via Embo. This contributed to Dornoch’s rise as a tourist destination. You can still see signs of the line of the route, which closed in 1960, as you walk round Loch Fleet.

At Loch Fleet we sat on the same seat we’d sat on in 2003 and ate our picnic. It was about high tide so the Loch was quiet. There were a small number of Eider, Widgeon, Herons, Oystercatchers and a couple of Curlew. After a rest of about half an hour I walked on round the Loch. In total I saw 7 common seals; a couple doing a showing off balancing thing but most just bobbing in the still water.

As I approached the junction with the A9 I saw a small John O’Groats Trail sign on a fence post. I’d not been looking forward to the main road, so decided that the John O’Groats Trail was worth a try. We’d looked at the website and I got the map yesterday in Tain. In places it provides off road alternatives to the A9 route. However, they are not all well marked or maintained. I’d no idea what this part would be like. It turned out to be a section of the old Light Railway route now overgrown. In some places the bracken was chest high and it seemed more like swimming through foliage than walking, but mostly it was OK and certainly better than the A9. I emerged from the path at the southern end of The Mound. Bob met me and we walked back to the car on the north side. He’d been looking at a bit of tomorrow’s route, also on the John O’Groats Trail.

From Revelation chapter 8

When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.

Even in heaven silence is valued. To sit by Loch Fleet today in silence, the water like a still mirror, is to mirror the activities of heaven. We heard on the news of places in the North of England where recent flooding is causing problems and we think of them. Water can do a lot of damage. We pray for those trying to sort out the mess.

God grant a quiet night and a peaceful end.

JAL 01.08.2019
Day 106 of the End to End, Dornoch to The Mound.

Day 105 of the End to End was a momentous day in many ways. First of all I went over 1000 miles walked since Land’s End and secondly I crossed the Dornoch Firth which definitely puts me in the North of Scotland. It was a day of signs telling us many things en route.
I started at Tain Airfield which had got a bit soggier since yesterday due to overnight rain. We waited for the rain to clear before I walked into Tain. We found a pleasant cafe for a bit of late 11s, next door to the Co op for a bit of shopping. Tain marked the 1000 miles since Land’s End.
On the way out of the town I stopped at St Duthac’s Chapel (or St Duthus if you prefer: seems he had two names) which has been a popular place of pilgrimage for several centuries. James IV is recorded as making 18 visits to the shrine. It was good to be able to give thanks for 1000 miles walked at this place that so many pilgrims have visited before, and which we first heard about when we visited Whithorn (which was several weeks ago now).
I walked out of Tain and into the A9 for the first time since my rather wet encounter with the Kessock bridge. There was a wide verge, so although it is a fast road, it wasn’t as bad as I feared it might be.

I met a local runner, and she asked me what I was doing. Once I’d explained LEJOG she said she’d seen another on the other side of the Dornoch bridge. We had a chat and she was very encouraging. Seems likely if you’re walking on the A9 at this point you’re a Lejogger as there’s nowhere else much to go.

Bob parked on the North side of the bridge and came back towards me, so we retraced his steps and walked across the Dornoch Firth together. After a break at the car for a sandwich and to change my wet boots, he showed me the path to the Dornoch Road.

That section of the walk was fairly quiet and I was soon arriving in Dornoch at the Cocoa Mountain cafe for the celebratory hot chocolate. We also bought some chocolate to eat later, of course.

Our accommodation for the next 3 nights are the sleeping cars at Rogart Station. Real trains still run through here a couple of times a day so we had a lovely time watching trains and eating chocolate.

From Isaiah 40

Those who wait upon the Lord for strength will mount up on wings like eagles. They will run and not be weary, walk on and not faint.

This is my favourite Bible verse. I saved it for today. 1000 miles and 12 days to go.

God grant us a quiet night and a peaceful end.

JAL 31.07.2019
Day 105 of the End to End, Tain Airfield to Dornoch.

Here’s a song to sing on the Nigg ferry if you’re the only passenger:
I’m a walker,  I’m a walker,
Going John O’Groats way,
It may be day 104
But I’m looking forward to more!

It’s day 104 of the End to End, sponsored by Christine and Richard of LCSB, and I was first in the queue for the 10am ferry to Nigg. Actually I was the old passenger. The captain of the ferry obviously gets plenty of practice shuttling back and forth all summer. The crossing was flat calm and the low cloud was lifting.

At the Nigg Pier a bus was waiting for passengers. There were none as I was walking.
I walked up to Nigg Old Church, a simple 17th century building that houses the Nigg Stone. This 8th century Pictish stone is wonderfully decorated and very well preserved given the adventures it has had over the centuries. It is said to show the earliest representation of the Eucharist in British Religious Art. The detailed carvings include a central cross and surrounding decorations on both sides of the stone. It was broken several centuries ago, but recent restoration has tried to give an indication of its original dimensions.

From the church, I took the Bishops Path back to Nigg Bay. Walking along the road I came to the RSPB reserve which has a small bird hide. The volunteers were having their lunch and we had a conversation about the masses of painted lady butterflies we had all seen.
I saw far fewer today, around 20 compared to over a hundred more yesterday, but that would usually be a high tally.
I met Bob further up the road and we had our picnic lunch by Arabella bridge. We then walked into Fearn Station together. It was quite hot by this time and so I was pleased to sit down for a while when we hot there.
The last 3 miles were via Loch Eye and the road was sheltered by trees most of the way. The days walk ended at Tain Airfield, one of several WW2 airfields in the area, which closed in 1947.
We had quite a long drive back. We went over to the coast at Shandwick to see another of the Pictish stones. Also damaged over centuries, this one is of similar age to the Nigg Stone but bigger and similarly decorated. It stands in a barley field in a glass box for protection.

As of tonight I am 4 miles away from 1000 miles walked.

From Psalm 118

The stone rejected by the builders became the cornerstone: we were amazed at how God caused this to happen.

To see these old stones now, they are amazing. They have been telling the Christian gospel for centuries. At times they have been well cared for and valued, at other times less so. They have been broken and buried but they are not silent now.

God grant a quiet night and a peaceful end.

JAL 30.07.2019
Day 104 of the End to End, Nigg Ferry to Tain Airfield.