Day 116 of the End to End is the penultimate day of the walk. It’s equivalent the other end was Day 2 when I walked into Newlyn in the rain to visit my friend Sue. I then walked round St Michael’s Bay. Today is a bit similar but wind instead of rain and the sea here is the Pentland Firth!
\nThe walk started at Greenland and I’d soon walked to Holland: Caithness is like that. The grey clouds meant soft colours in the landscape. Most of the wildflowers were thistles except for some unexpected Monk’s Hood (which is poisonous). The few butterflies to brave the buffeting winds were green veined whites.<\/p>\n
The roads, like many in Caithness, we’re long and straight. I’d see our little car moving up ahead of me and then Bob walking back from quite a distance.
\nThe views of the Pentland Firth got clearer as the day progressed. Orkney emerged and so did Skoma. We had a bit if a picnic at Rigifa. The afternoon walk was quite short. I saw the Gills Bay ferry set off from the mainland for Orkney. Just before the end point I joined the route Bob and Hannah had used for their walks as it came in from Lyth. I chose to stop at the iconic Canisbay War Memorial from which the views are amazing. We were a bit early for our accommodation so we back tracked a bit in the car and had some afternoon tea at the Castle of Mey where the strawberry gateau was excellent.<\/p>\n
Tonight is our first night at the John O’Groats Inn, in a lovely room overlooking the sea where gannets are diving. Tomorrow is the last day of the walk. Don’t miss it!<\/p>\n
From Psalm 139
\n
\nIf I flew away beyond the east or lived in the farthest place in the west, you would be there to lead me, you would be there to help me.<\/i><\/p>\n
I am on the North Coast of the British Mainland. The steel grey sea, grey islands on the horizon and grey skies the world around me looks very different again. The purple thistles, white daisies and blue Monk’s Hood colour the verge. I have been lead to a beautiful place.<\/p>\n
God grant me a quiet night and a peaceful end.<\/b> <\/p>\n
JAL 11.08.2019
\nDay 116 of the End to End, from Greenland to Canisbay War Memorial.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Day 116 of the End to End is the penultimate day of the walk. It’s equivalent the other end was Day 2 when I walked into Newlyn in the rain to visit my friend Sue. I then walked round St Michael’s Bay. Today is a bit similar but wind instead of rain and the sea … Continue reading “The Pentland Firth”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/foowr.org.uk\/lejogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/foowr.org.uk\/lejogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/foowr.org.uk\/lejogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foowr.org.uk\/lejogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foowr.org.uk\/lejogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=868"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/foowr.org.uk\/lejogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":869,"href":"https:\/\/foowr.org.uk\/lejogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868\/revisions\/869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/foowr.org.uk\/lejogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foowr.org.uk\/lejogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foowr.org.uk\/lejogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}