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I woke early. I still wasn’t used to sleeping in a bed. Unfortunately, my leg was still sore, so I popped some ibuprofen, applied the last of the gel and went to get some breakfast.

Happily Lybster sold gel at the local Spar shop. Just after eight I set off to walk 6 miles along the road again to Whaligoe. My plan was to test out the leg on the road and then to see whether I could walk the coastal path section into Wick. It was 10 miles but I didn’t want to lose a whole day road walking. 

It was a lovely sunny day and there were good views from the road, which wasn’t too busy. I talked to the cows and the sheep who were also enjoying the sunshine and arrived at Whaligoe about 11 o’clock. I took some photos of the rock formations and started to walk down the famous steps. I soon stopped and came back up again. It was painful. Going up was no problem. Going down definitely was.

I sat at the top of the stairs pondering the pros and cons of more road walking against  the pleasures of one of the best sections on the trail. The biggest issue was the danger of doing more damage and jeopardising my arrival at John O’Groats. Looking at the map there were several places where I could rejoin the road from the trail if I needed to. On that basis, I decided to at least try to walk the scenic route.

A couple of hundred yards later I descended very slowly to a ditch that I would have sprung across in a jiffy at any other time. Today, however, my inner gazelle was awol. I stood on the edge for an embarassing period of time. Should I jump? Should I take a long stride? Would I fall backwards? There was a steep, muddy slope on the other side. To hell with it. I lunged, I made it. No more ditches for the timebeing please.

Happy to say that luck stayed with me. The walk to Wick was grassy all the way, swinging up and down and back and forth along the cliffs and coves. The rock formations were stunning. To have missed them would be criminal. It did take me a long time to walk 10 miles, almost 7 hours. That included plenty of rests to gaze at the sea stacks and arches in the sun and to watch the thousands upon thousands of sea birds roosting on the cliffs and swooping and soaring in the updrafts.

I walked past Wick Harbour at about seven o’clock and headed for the favourably reviewed Mackay hotel to eat. It was well reviewed for a reason. Cullen skink, lamb tagline and lemon meringue pie gave me the energy I needed to walk on further. 

There was still 25 miles to John O’Groats via the scenic route. I didn’t want my last day to be too long or to walk along the road. I walked for another couple of hours, finding a short cut to reduce the mileage by a couple of miles. I walked past the Ackersgill Tower, a beautiful building sadly covered in scaffolding and found a perfect camping spot on a grassy bank overlooking Reiss beach. I pitched my tent and sat on the grass watching the sunset thinking that the day couldn’t have gone any better. 

Day Summary

Sea stacks and arches. Seagulls and a sunset. 19 miles to the end.