The adventure has started!!

When I got up this morning it was raining and blowing a gale but it looked to be Northerly so I figured it would be a strong cross wind, but shouldn't be too bad........

I had a leisurly breakfast, the hostel is really good, they provide cereal and coffee, so I got up early updated the web site, and had breakfast at the same time.

Chilled about till 9.30 and then set off for John O' Groats on the bike. Cos I was staying over night I just took my ruck sack, with extra fleeces, water e.t.c. which I figured I might need if it really started to rain. The weather was good, it was very windy but was brightening up and seemed quite warm, especially out of the wind. I made good progress and got to John 'O Groats in two hours (20 miles) even though I stopped to take some pictures. I should have worked out that the wind had some westerly in it, cos at one point I was whizzing along at 25 miles an hour!!

Got to the sign post and had my picture taken. This is when I had the first disaster of the day. While chatting to the photographer about hosting websites my bike blew over in the wind. The cradle holding my GPS cracked and will need mending. I bought some super glue later and I hope I can fix it! I had a bit of lunch, got the end to end form. This I hope will get me a T-shirt when I complete the journey and set off back.

This is when I realised I was cycling into the wind. For the first hour I couldn't manage more than 8 miles an hour. I am not sure whether it was the wind, or it was all up hill, or because I was still digesting my baked potato but it was a nightmare. Finally things got better and I picked up a bit of speed, but all the way back the wind was pushing me all over the road, and making it really difficult.

I got back to Thurso about 3ish completly done in. But because I was first back to the hostel I could take my time and have a really long shower. One restored to life I headed into Thurso for some super glue. It is a lovely little town, but very small, there wasn't much happening. I was quite chuffed, despite the wind I averaged 11.5 miles per hour for the round trip.

Once back to the hostel, I had the second major success of the day. I washed yesterday and todays clothes and got them dry in the hotstel tumble dryer. Hurrah!

Finished the day off by going for a cheap curry, which was really nice. It would have been even nicer if the Beers hadn't cost £5 each. The Beers were nearly more than the food. Water from here on in then.....

And so to bed.... Tommorow I will cyle to Helmsale with all my clobber so it will be a slow old day. I am a bit sore and should take some Nurofen, the cycle traveller's secret weapon. It will be windy again, so I will take the shortest route possible.

I now have some nice pictures, which I will upload when I have worked out how to.

Speak to you tomorow Phil

You can email me here. Send me your comments and tips .