Day 11 LEJOG Tain to Thurso

Today was probably the hardest day of the LEJOG journey.
The forecast wasn’t good  with rain and strong headwinds for most of the day.
We set off just after 8 from the Morangie Hotel and soon had to face a gusty headwind and rain as we crossed the Dornoch Firth.

We were cycling on the busy A9 and weren’t coming off until reaching Helmsford at 34m.

We had planned to try and stop for coffee/hot chocolate at Brora at 24m but we didn’t see any coffee shops so we cracked on. Jim had gone ahead and we lost sight of him.

We saw him again at the waterstop a few miles past Brora but as there was a steep hill immediately after Phillip and I decided not to stop and head for Helmsford to see if we could find a place to stop there.

The weather and wind were now very bad and we were very pleased to reach Helmsford and find a local museum with coffee shop.

The coffee and cake had not tasted so good for a long time and we took the opportunity to get dry and warm up.Inside we could see an old bridge crossing the local river.

After our stop the we turned inland onto the A897 and briefly it looked like the weather improved but soon it was raining again and the headwind was relentless.

We cycled along the Helmsdale river on quiet roads and spotted the occasional fisherman.Although it was only 18m further to our lunch stop it seem to take ages to get there.

When we finally reached it we saw Jim again who had been cycling with Matt, Chris and James who had been so kind to adopt him for the time being.

Lunch was brief as hail was now coming down. I quickly made myself a cheese sandwich and with the hot soup made by Christina I quickly sought shelter in one of the vans.

After lunch the three of us set off heading for Melvich where we would turn right for Thurso. This stretch was 22m and again took a long time to get through. Fortunately the rain stopped and the sun came through which made our ordeal a bit more bareable.

Once we had passed the turn our journey was fairly easy with tailwinds and lovely sunshine. We soon reached the 2^nd water stop and briefly stopped for a drink, jelly babies and a banana.

There after it was only 12 more miles to Thurso and after passing a nuclear power plant and a windfarm we were treated to a very nice long descent into Thurso.

Our hotel for the night was the Station Hotel which was in the middle of town.

Beer/ale of the day: Tennents Ember brewed in Glasgow(creamy and with a slightly bitter but very pleasant after taste).

Today:distance 88.2m,moving time 6hr35min,avg speed 13.4mph,max speed 36.2mph,elevation 3596ft
Total distance 955m,total moving time 65hr20min,total elevation 39650ft