The penultimate day!!! For the first time on the trip we were in sight of the end and at this stage were fairly confident that (all major catastrophes aside) we would manage to achieve what we had set out to do and in the prescribed time frame.

We set off from Sandy’s (Kyle’s cousin’s) at the latest time we had set of from anywhere up to this point on the trip…(this may have had something to do with tiredness catching up with us, the joys of a double bed each…..or perhaps even the few beers that had been consumed the night before!) but we were up and on the road towards Helmsdale, our last stop and night of the trip. There was a lot of the A9 to be eaten up this day and as I’m sure most of you from anywhere in Scotland will know, this is an infamous piece of road that stretches all the way from PErth to almost the top of the country, dangerous isn’t the half of it. Im not sure on the stats but they aint good! and its probably better that we kept them out our heads for these last two days of the trip to be honest.

We had a stop off in Tain for some lunch that we took our time over so that we could rattle out the remaining miles up to Helmsdale - having left late and taking this longer lunch we knew we would arrive fairly late but had decided to do so and were happy to do so due to a knowledge that Helmsdale itself would not hold too much excitement that we would be missing out on. In saying that we got in at a reasonable time at what was probably the easiest of the hostels to find, on the main road! We had also squeezed in a stop at Dunrobin Castle on the way as we pased by its doorstep on the road, and as you can see from the photos its some castle- and as far as we know it was one of if not the castle that Walt Disney based the famous Cinderella castle that is used in all things Disney, quite impressive! We sorted ourselves out, and headed down to the pub for the last supper!

A couple of burgers and some chat later we found ourselves playing somewhat of a pool tournament with a few of the local boys - in which I can happily say that we come out trumps and did ourselves and our families proud :D We went back to the hostel and bumped into a pair of lads doing much the same challenge as us although in the opposite direction and as nasty as it may seem it made us feel great knowing that we had all that behind us and they had it all ahead of them! Unfortunately they had (having just completed their first day) had a puncture and a chain snap….both faits we had managed to swerve for the trip thus far! To both those guys- hope your luck changed and you’re getting on well!

We settled in for the night knowing that the next day was to be our last, with just over 60 miles ahead of us……but also in the knowledge (AGAIN) that there were a right vicious pair of hills siting just outside Helmsdale on route to wick awaiting our arrival the next day!

Cheers,

Hammy