Lejog day 34 Helmsdale to Lybster
The penultimate day! And the worst day for weather. Persistent rain for at least half of the journey. We stopped off at Dunbeath and cycled down the hill to the harbour. I bought a coffee from the mobile café to warm me up. Rosie doesn't drink hot drinks but she's tough! We sheltered from the rain in the entrance to the gents' toilet!
After about half an hour the rain eased off so we pedalled to the Spar shop and bought some paracetamol and a cherry cake. We were served by a very nice half toothless English man. He'd lived at Dunbeath for fifty years. "Almost a local then," I said. He told us he'd been there more than most of the locals who move away when they're young and then sometimes come back later in life.
We were still on the A9, by the way! We plodded on from Dunbeath to Latheron. It was raining again so we sheltered in a bus shelter - slightly preferable to the gents' toilet. We ate our lunch including the whole of the cherry cake which was very tasty and gave us the energy to complete today's route to Lybster.
We were early for the Airbnb - anytime after 4 was fine but it was only 2.30. We went to the shop to buy food for this evening's meal and tomorrow's ride. It was chucking it down so we found another bus shelter and stayed there till it eased. The sea was close by so we went to have a look. It looked cold and grey!
By this time it was almost 4 so we rode to Helen's Cosy Lybster Cottage. The instruction was to phone Helen on arrival and she'd pop over to let us in. I did that but there was no answer, only an option to leave a message which I did. It was a worrying five minutes but just at the point when I was going to knock on some doors a lady across the road started waving at me. It was Helen of course. She'd had a look earlier to see if anyone had arrived, expecting to see a car - I'd forgotten to say we were travelling by bike. Anyway it was a big relief to be let in and shown around.
We had finally left the A9 at Latheron after what had seemed like weeks either on it or close to it.
We're now on the A99! Since Inverness the route has taken us along the North Coast 500 which goes up the east coast, turns left along the north coast then wiggles its way along the west coast before returning to Inverness. It's very popular especially with camper vans. It's a great shame that amid such scenic beauty people find it necessary to chuck their rubbish out of the car window to litter the verges!
I mustn't end on a sour note. The A9 was fairly quiet today and the coastline is quite rugged and lovely. We've enjoyed it despite the weather. It could have been like this on so many days so we're still very thankful for the amazing weather we've had. Tomorrow we're probably keeping off the NC500 and going inland along quieter roads to arrive at our ultimate goal of John O'Groats (we hope). Sam and Louise are driving up to meet us before the journey home on Monday.
