Orkney to Elgin

Left Orkney last Saturday via the ferry from South Ronaldsay to John'O'Groats. On the way, in Orkney,  we stopped at the Italian Chapel, made and beautifully decorated by Italian prisoners of war. The art work is amazing. Also stopped at the Tomb of the Eagles, a stone age tomb and bronze age house run rather well as a commercial venture, after the farmer who found it got fed up with waiting for the official archeologists to come. He waited 16 years.

John'O'Groats seemed rather tacky and the only thing to recommend it was the end of a long cycle route up Britain. We took photographs, ate fish and chips from a stall and continued on our way to Thurso, where we had a night booked at a hostel above a fish and chip shop. Tom had more fish and chips but I wanted a changed and ventured to fish cakes and onion rings. A terrible mistake. I don't often ditch food but that lot went in the bin, I never did discover the onion, though there was something tasteless and wafer thin in the batter.

From Thurso to Betty Hill, where we had our first encounter with midges. Strong wind and rain do have their advantage in keeping the midges away. On the way we stopped at a grand house having its open garden. Beautiful gardens and tea for £1.50, sandwiches, scones, cakes, help yourself and do come back for more. We did. The scenery was beautiful, wide open farm lands, high moorland, pine forests, birds we cannot name and of course hills and when you are at the top you round the corner and find it goes on. however, none were as steep the steepest in Norway.

From Betty Hill we decided against the "official" route over high mountain passes with great views because there was low cloud and rain and so no views. Instead we went down the Strath Naver valley, scene of some of the worst atrocities of the clearances and set out as a trail with information boards along the way, for iron age tombs as well as village remains. Seeing the villages and imagining the homes and lives of the people in such stunningly beautiful scenery was quite moving. From the valley we climbed gently up to about 250 metres to Crask Inn where we had booked beds in a bunk house. We were the only ones staying in the bunk house and with radiators working we could spread out and dry out. the food at the Inn was exceptionally good and cheap. A party of young Swiss people were camping for one night there and produced a brass quartet to entertain the people staying at the inn. Rather good and unexpected!

Crask Inn is high up in a very remote and beautiful moorland mountainous area.  From there it was a gentle down-hill, passed the Falls of Shin where we saw salmon leaping. So gentle was the downhill that the strong wind against us meant we had to pedal all the way and I had been imagining a day of just sitting and doing no work, We just caught the last ferry to Cromarty on the Black Isle. A charming town where we could have camped for free near the ferry, with a portaloo available. But we had come a long way, it was getting late, there were a few spots of rain and the odd midge, all enough to persuade us to accept B&B at a nice old pub.

From Cromarty we saw the sunshine for a few hours and I wore a T shirt for the first time in weeks and the wind behind us.  Also found wild raspberries which we picked. In one village the pub did very good food, but was busy; one reason we were rather late at our next stop, which was Nairn, noted for its dry sunny climate, We arrived at 9.30 pm with the misty rain and the wind against us. The campsite marked on the map was really for caravans and he said they were full, but we could camp down by the beach for free, where there was a picnic site and toilets (locked until 6 am). It was a nice spot and we used the surrounding bushes. The toilets were eventually opened at 8am, The beach is enormous and sandy but the sea was cold, so got no further than a paddle. That day was our wedding anniversary.  We visited a whisky distillery - connected?  Turned out to be the first to make an organic whisky and it is excellent; Ben Romach organic, if you want to try it and can get it. Now in Elgin in a superb B&B, but time to move on. Catching up on internet has taken far too long.

A long time ago, this area was populated by the Picts.  Very little is known about them; they were Christian (later on) and there were monasteries, so you would expect some written accounts.  A woman running one museum thought they Vikings destroyed all monastic records.  But the Picts carved wonderful designs on stones and these are fascinating.