Day 21 – 25th April 2007
I was awoken in the small hours by the unfamiliar sound of raindrops being blown with some force against our bedroom window. I looked out into almost total darkness – there were three or four orange smears somewhere in the gloom – neon lights through horizontal rain. I tried to sleep, but did not do so for at least an hour.
The next time I looked out, a small amount of daylight oozed through the clouds, which was enough for me to see the pampas grass outside clinging onto its mother earth with every fibre of its being. Our final ride of this holiday, from East Mey to Thurso, via Dunnet Head, promised to be amongst the toughest miles of all.
Breakfast was ample and well-cooked, and was enlivened considerably when our host announced cheerfully that Alan Ball had died of a heart attack: Alan Ball, of Everton and England, who once told a newspaper reporter that he didn’t squeeze his spots because he wanted to be repulsive to keep the girls away. They would only interfere with his football.
By the time we set off, around 8.30, the rain had stopped and the sun was threatening to emerge. The fact that the wind was southerly, rather than westerly, was also a considerably bonus. It would be a cross-wind rather than a head-wind for most of the ride.
Our progress was initially very good, as we had a long downhill from East Mey. After about 4 miles we turned towards Dunnet Head, a final northern push towards the limit of this island. This section was wind-assisted and still we bowled along, but we could see that the sleeping monster we had photographed so happily in the tranquillity of last night’s sunset was a totally different proposition in the cold light of a gale-force day.
I was surprised to see some quite large lakes beside the road as we approached the lighthouse, and even more so to see that the fishing rights belonged to the Dunnet Head Angling Society. Does someone really come up here to put half-tame stock trout in these wilderness lochans so that someone else can pay for the privilege of pulling them out again?
Eventually we reached the lighthouse and in many ways, the journey’s end. To me, Land’s End to John O’Groats was incidental, a ride for the tabloids. Lizard Point to Dunnet Head is the true “end-to-end” – a ride for the purist.

It is a marvellous place, nothing but sea between us and the North Pole. The sun was trying to break through as we reached the top and we could just make out the Old Man of Hoy. We all recalled a gripping day’s television when the BBC broadcast live from Hoy as Joe Brown and his team became the first to conquer it. Now that was reality TV – one of the finest moments of British Broadcasting history.
After a few photographs, we began the last ride of all, along the A836 to Thurso station. A few times we had to stop, as we had done throughout the ride, for Jan to get comfortable.
I wonder if her saddle needs adjusting?
