Day 35:
Day 35: today was different. The sun was shining, the sea was flat calm. I left the B&B at 08:40 and walked through Golspie to Duke Street (the Duke being the Duke of Sutherland who had a massive statue of himself built on the high hill overlooking town; he's the one who did the Clearences - everyone loves him up here) and found the bridge leading to the Brora coastal path. This was my first break from the A9 and I loved it. Not only was it beautiful (sea, sun, sand, owls, oyster catchers, Dunrobin Castle) there were three colonies of mostly grey seals lazing in the surf - they let me get close enough for some worthwhile photos. They were great fun to watch diving and head bobbing in the water. Anyway that path took 6 miles off my journey. Then back to the A9 for about 20 miles, through Portgower, Helmsdale and before the big hill climb at Berridale I'd had enough - luckily I found a marked section of the John o'Groats Trail! It got me half way up the big hill before dumping me back on the road but that was fine. My goal was Dunbeath. If I can make it that far I have a shot at JoG tomorrow. While I was puffing it out Sarah was finding me accommodation for tonight and tomorrow, and phoned the local restaurant (The Bay Owl) asking them to cook me a take out which they obliged (I was too late for a sit down). 400 yards down the road is my B&B. Stats: 32 miles, 11 hours 35. It's 38 miles to JoG. Impressive? No. I just met a JOGLEr doing the end to end and also staying here at Inver Hill, Dunbeath. This is his first day - he walked the 38 miles from JoG - ON HIS FIRST DAY. He's planning on walking the end to end in 30 days. His support car pulled out and his 2 co-walkers quit and he's doing it solo. And he has Parkinsons bad enough he can no longer write. THAT is impressive.
Andrew Martin's
website.
Andrew Martin's
Just Giving page.
DAY 36
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| Dunrobin Castle. |
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| A seal colony on the 6 mile beach trail between Golspie and Brora. |
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| At Brora, looking north east towards Helmsdale. |
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| Looks a lot like Dorset... |
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| Looking south from Inver Hill. |
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| Markers for the JOG trail south of Berriedale. |
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| Berriedale: the last big hill of the walk. |
A note about the blog
I must be the only LEJOGer without a smart phone. This means I don't have the ability to update this blog when I'm on the trail. My support team back home kindly offered to update the blog for me, so this will be communicated by text message and written up on my behalf. It will therefore be brief and without photos. I will expand on this when I get back from my journal entries, dictaphone recordings and photo journal. The detailed account will be published as a book which will be available on Amazon.
Charity
Thank you to everyone who has made a donation to
Helping Hands for the Blind, a respectable local charity. You can make a donation
here. Using Gift Aid, the charity is able to claim an additional percentage of each donation from the government as part of the
Gift Aid scheme.
While I am not tracking how much has been raised, the charity themselves may wish to do that; leaving a note with your donation such as "LEJOG" will help them do that. To be frank, it's more important that they receive donations than it is for me to take credit; they're actually doing something important whereas I am going on what could be described as a holiday.
My books
Lastly and leastly, I am an independent author. Writing is a pleasure even if reading it isn't! I will write an account of my LEJOG journey in the form of a book which hopefully will encourage other people to give LEJOG a try (and probably discourage many more). If you want a copy, the first batch will be given free of charge. Ask and you shall receive...
My other books are available on Amazon:
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