Today (June 1st) was the second to last day of my LEJOG and the last night I would sleep in my tent. Jason saw me off from the campsite and planned to meet me again somewhere along today’s route. We were heading for Thurso and camping at Thurso Bay Caravan and Camping Park. It was a gorgeous day for a ride with temperatures in the high 50sF/14C. It was a chilly start but soon warmed up, particularly with all the ups and downs. See the elevation profile below.

The climb from the campsite back to the road was steep and I stopped frequently to take photos of the North Sea. This was my first time on the north coast of Britain.

At some point Jason passed me in his van then waited in a lay by with the kettle on for coffee. What a treat!! We were both surprised by the lack of services, including petrol stations, coffee shops and restaurants in this area which was surprising since we were on the popular A500 route. After coffee I passed an adorable cake stand and stopped to buy a snack.

Jason texted to let me know he had found a nice cafe in Bettyhill so we planned to meet for lunch. It was a climb and then a descent to the small village. I had a headwind (you can hear it in the video below), but it was sunny and the views of the coastline made me very happy. I love being by the sea and miss that in Colorado.

I descended into Bettyhill and met Jason at the wonderful and highly recommended Store Cafe. The owner told us that they are one of the only establishments around that remains open year round to serve the locals in the off season. I had a bacon butty with HP sauce 😋. The added bonus was that they had a very sociable resident cat! 😻

After the lunch stop I continued along the A836 enjoying the views. As I crossed the Halladale River into the county of Strathmore I saw my first sign for John O’Groats

At one point I stopped to take a photo of the decommissioned Dounreay power station in the distance. I remembered the name from high school days.

While stopped, a camper van pulled up in front of me and two people were waving at me through the windscreen. They got out of the vehicle and reminded me that they had met me on the day I crossed into Scotland at Gretna. The lady was one of the two road cyclists that took my photo at the welcome to Scotland sign and we had chatted at the cafe in Gretna Green with the hubby who was driving the camper van. They had finished their LEJOG two days earlier and were on their way home. They also told me they saw me cycling around Culloden Battlefield but couldn’t talk to me because they were part of a tour group. I remembered the tour group. I stopped by them and tried to listen to some of the information that was being given. 😉 It was nice to see them again. I had just been thinking about the ladies and wondering if they had finished. Since they were only traveling on paved roads and were not carrying gear, I expected they were well ahead of me.

For the last part of the ride into Thurso, I detoured off the coast road as the traffic was heavier and passed through Shepster and Westfield. I spent a bit of time getting lost in the streets of Thurso before finding the campsite and meeting up with Jason. We pitched our tents and headed off to explore Thurso and find some dinner.