Day 14 Crask Inn to John o'Groats (83 Miles)

Its the last day of our trip today, we stayed in the Crask Inn bunkhouse last night. The Inn now offers B&B and we had fish pie and haggis with some hill walkers and a few fishermen.

The heavy overnight rain had now disappeared and dull skies with a 10 mph head wind had arrived. Our coal fire had lasted through the night but we had no power as the generator had packed in. We managed to get the gas stove lit and made our usual morning coffee and porridge.

Leaving Crask was a uphill climb followed by a downhill track to Altnaharra where Britain's coldest temperature was ever recorded.

The single track roads from Altnaharra started to level out slightly as we headed north east along the Loch Naver valley, heather and birch Moorland gave way to grazed fields of sheep and beef cattle. Several fisherman cast their flies into the river as we cycled quickly past Torrisdale Bay.

Our first stop of the day was Bettyhill Cafe, where we met a team of 50 charity cyclists that were cycling from Thurso to Aberdeen. After a quick chat with some of the lads we grabbed a coffee and headed into our first steep hill of the day. The roads continued to climb higher giving spectacular coastal views of the North Atlantic.

As we headed eastwards we glimpsed the rocky cliffs of  Orkney through the clearing mist, the road undulated for some distance but gradually flattened out. The weather also quickly started improving and we could finally see some blue skies appearing on the horizon. By the time we got to Thurso the sun was fully out and we purchased a celebratory peuter quaich. 

We also called into see Ken Wilson of Thurso Vets and met his other colleagues who had kindly put together a survival pack consisting of a large calf stomach tube, Isotonic drink, Red Bull, muesli bars, Sudacreme, Whisky and Ibuprofen.

Suitably refreshed and now with wings we flew the remaining twenty miles east to John O'Groats past Dunnet Bay and the Castle of Mey basking in sunshine.

The road to John o'Groats was fairly level and we could see the new flat roofed Eco pods that surrounded the finishing point. At the infamous white and black way marker post we had our photo's taken and were soon joined by Ian Millar of Wick Vets with two beers he had kindly come to pick us up and put us up for the night.

Well there ends our 14 day cycle which took exactly 1,013 miles end to end. 

Many thanks to all who have followed us on our journey and kindly sponsored us throughout this time it's been a huge inspiration to both of us and one which we shall remember forever.