Tongue to John O'Groats (and Wick)

It's hard to write about the final day from any other perspective than "it's finally over", i.e. with a mixed sense of wow, happiness, relief and even a little anticlimax.

The ride itself was largely uneventful. I left the hostel (Tongue is a great SYHA by the way) before 7 and stopped briefly outside the Tongue Hotel to steal a bit of wifi and upload yesterday's blip, then headed up the hill out of town. I passed my first sign to John O'Groats pretty early on, it said 67 miles to go I think, so I knew exactly what I had to do. The early stages were quite hilly, which I was expecting, but the real problem was the midges, which seemed to be out in force this morning and which made stopping to wee/tweet/check in to Foursquare very annoying and painful - at times they even seemed able to bite while I was cycling. Going downhill fast often resulted in a layer of midges on the front of my cycling jersey and all down the front if my legs :-(

The hills gradually dwindled and I stopped in a cafe at Thurso to meet up with Matt and Steve and another rider (Simon) who had finished his ride to John O'Groats the day before but who had a day on hand waiting for the train home.

I ordered a fried egg sandwich and tea while I waited - one of the great things about this trip has been my ability to eat whatever and whenever I like!

Matt and Steve were a while behind me and by the time they arrived I was ready for cake - a bit of a mistake actually. It was lovely, a massive slice of blueberry sponge cake with copious butter icing, but a little too filling and sickly for my taste!

Anyway, the three of us rode the final 20 miles together. It seemed fitting somehow and was the only significant section of the whole ride where I wasn't on my own. Our arrival at John O'Groats was a little bit underwhelming in some ways - a flurry of back-slapping and whooping and the taking of many photographs. There were various finishing groups of cyclists about - to the point that we almost had to queue for the photographer and his famous sign.

You get to choose what goes on the signpost for your photograph - most people seen to put their milage. I still don't know my actual milage (I need to measure it when I get home) so I just put 'Groats', to match up with the 'End' that had been on the sigh in Cornwall - my ride being called 'End to Groats''.

Matt and Steve suggested that it should say 'Oats' in recognition of all the muesli and oatcakes that I've consumed during the trip :-)

The others went off to arrange a taxi ride to Wick. I decided to ride it - it was only 20 miles after all. As it happens, I'd made it most of the way to Wick before they passed me (laughing) in their taxi. In all the excitement at the signpost, I forgot to get my record sheet stamped again (I forgot to get it stamped at Land's End as well), so just after setting out I realised that I had to turn back and get it stamped on the first pub. I now have a completed record sheet with less than half of the days missing!

At Wick I checked in to my hotel, had a quick bath - my first for two weeks - then went to the pub to celebrate with Matt and Steve.

It was quite an emotional farewell - we've grown pretty close during the two weeks that we have been on the road. Our unspoken agreement to ride separately but meet up regularly has worked out really well and I think we all found it helpful in different ways. It's certainly the case that my least fun evenings have been those where I've been in different hostel to the two of them.

I don't know if these will be friendships that will last - quite possibly not, for all sorts of practical reasons - but we did form a very real friendship for the duration of he ride at least and I certainly wasn't expecting that when I set out.

That's enough for today... I plan to use the train ride home tomorrow to write up my thoughts (such as they are) about the trip.