John O'Groats is Inspiring, that's actually a lie, John O'Groats is full of souvenir shops selling magnets and postcards but the area around John O'Groats is life affirmingly inspiring!

How to get to John O'Groats from Thurso

At the time of writing the bus timetables have recently changed to introduce more services, I got the number 80 bus at 8.30 from just next to Santander in Thurso, the coach sized bus navigates the tiny and often unmarked roads leading towards Wick and John O'Groats with skill.  It takes around an hour for the journey and may well be one of the prettiest bus trips I've been on and possibly the most remote too. The buses are maybe once every couple of hours so make sure you don't miss the one you want.   The bus drops you off at the John O'Groats bus stop which is next to a technicolour hotel and a craft and souvenir village, from the bus stop/car park,  it's just a few steps to the famous sign and as it was so early in the day, I didn't have to wait long for my photo.

The walk to the Duncansby Stacks

The best thing to do when you've had your photo is to avoid the souvenir shops (although I did buy a fridge magnet for posterity) and take a walk in an easterly direction to the Ducansby Head Lighthouse and the Duncansby Stacks.  It's about a 6-7km round trip and it's sorted of marked out in the way that the Scottish are like "ah well, you'll find it if you keep walking." Please say that in a Scottish accent and you'll know what I'm talking about.

The walk itself takes you along the cliff tops of the very edge of Great Britain, any further you'll be in the sea, fascinatingly Shetland is still another 152 miles further north and one day it's a journey I need to go on.  On a clear day depending on when you're there you may spot Dolphins, Seals, and even Orcas (May/June is migration time) but today all I saw were sheep and seabirds.  Before you get to the lighthouse you'll also pass Sannick Bay, a white sandy beach with azure blue waters, I marvelled at the same kind of clear blue waters you get overseas, of course, not quite the same temperature as the Cote D'Azur.

The Duncansby Head Lighthouse is the true most northeasterly point of Great Britain although John O'Groats gets all of the credit (probably because the car park is bigger and the lighthouse is up a hill).  It's at this point when you reach the Lighthouse that you take a right and just keep walking the half-mile to see the 2 huge Duncansby Stacks rising from the North Sea, there a few things that take your breath away in life but seeing these for the first time is one of them.  It feels so otherworldly, so end of the earth, that this is the exact experience you imagine when you plan a trip to the very top of the map.  It's not the most challenging of walks though walking up the hilly road towards the lighthouse will burn a few calories and by the time I completed my return trip back to John O'Groats, I was in need of a cuppa and thanks to a cabin I managed to acquire a very reasonable coffee and some super cheap chips (for a tourist destination).

After I recovered I had a little time to kill as the next bus home wasn't until 1.40pm, (clearly they've been scheduled for half-day trips and really that's what you need if you want to factor in the walk) so I browsed the John O'Groats Brewery which isn't yet fully complete but I did manage to acquire a little bottle of local gin which I'm going to save for a special occasion.  

A Very Big Achievement

All in all, today for me felt like a big achievement, just to make it over 400 miles from home via rail and coach on my own when I sometimes can't even leave the house makes me feel like an invincible superhero.  I've been through a big period of transformation in these last few months and although I will always have anxiety, I'm really starting to feel so much more adventurous and like I have a whole new lease of life.  Sure, life is going to have its challenges still but I'm feeling pretty stable and ready for my next adventure.

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Scotland by rail part 3 - Thurso is cold!

Thurso is cold, 13c cold, Britains most northerly town feels like it's closer to the arctic and indeed Scotland's most northerly islands are actually closer to the arctic than they are to London. I'm not a big fan of the cold so to feel the brisk wind and the autumnal chill in the air did not please me greatly.  Mainly I've brought with me T-Shirts so I may have to purchase another jumper.  I also smelled those first outdoor autumnal scents,possibly a testament to the most northerly situation of Thurso and also the fact that we enter into September next week.

Last night I wrote about the differences in Coronavirus polices when travelling in England and Scotland, well, I have an addendum from the far north.  I'm staying at Thurso House, a cosy bed and breakfast near the beach in Thurso, it's the most expensive room of my trip at £70 per night but breakfast isn't available at all due to Covid and when you check out you have to strip your bed and put it along with the towels in a bin bag which you then tie up!

I did meet the owners earlier and they're lovely and also super helpful.  No information in the room that I could see but I did find a map and they'd kindly had the bus timetables printed out for me as they're all irregular due to COVID.  I really thought all of the variants in policies were down to staying in a different country but now I have no idea as it seems to vary from place to place.  It's great that each place wants to keep us safe I just wish there was a standard set of guidelines so you knew what to expect when travelling.

The Far North Line

This mornings journey to get to Thurso from Inverness was everything I had imagined and more.  The station at Brora was one highlight as the train goes down the main street right in front of people's front doors on it's way into the Highland village station.  Altnabreac station was literally in the middle of nowhere, I couldn't see a single house, just barren heather covered hillsides. Apparently when you travel on the far north line you can see lots of wildlife like stags and seals but I think they may all have been hiding today.

If you haven't done the rail journey between Inverness and Thurso, I really recommend taking the day to do it, yes it takes 4 hours but it's incredible.  You're so close to the coast you can almost dip your toes in the water and at points you're so high and remote you wonder why they decided to put some of the stations in place.  The train was not busy but there were other passengers, with only 4 journeys a day there seemed to be more locals than tourists on the train and arriving in Thurso there were maybe 20 people getting off the train.

Thurso, Britain's most northerly town

If you're expecting a large sprawling metropolis when you get to Thurso you'd be mistaken, it may be Britain's most northerly town but it's much more like a large English village.  It feels like stepping back in town, i'm not sure if it's much quieter than usual but arriving on a Wednesday afternoon to businesses which were closed for a half day felt very like staying with my granny in the 1980's.  That's not necessarily a bad thing of course, I came for a gentle pace of life and that's what I got.  I did a lovely riverside walk that took around an hour and then I added on a trip to the ruins of Thurso castle, accessible by walking through an inauspicious industrial estate but worth the walk.

Thurso feels remote, you stand at the end of the harbour looking out to the nearby Orkney Islands and you feel like you're standing at the end of the earth and in a way you are, you know all those lumpy bumpy bits that stick out on the map of the British Isles, well if you come to Thurso you can say you stood on them, this is literally where the map runs out and any further you'll be swimming in the cold clear waters of the Pentland Firth.

Tomorrow I plan to get the bus to Wick, To John O Groats and I'm going to walk from John O Groats to the lighthouse at Duncansby Head, the northeasterly point of mainland Britain, I hope to feel like I'm standing on the edge of the world.

Ways to support my writing

If you have enjoyed this article or found it useful and would like to support my writing I'd love a virtual coffee

I also have a lovely Facebook group I'd love you to come and join 

You could also come and follow me on Instagram to keep up with my adventures, I really am grateful for all

of your love and support.

Barcelona, The City That Healed My Heart

Travel, it's in my heart and my soul, when I can't travel, I get restless, I get itchy feet, I get distracted so when travel plans are afoot it gives me a buzz and it doesn't matter if I'm travelling with the kids or with my friends or on my own, I embrace each experience and try to get as much out of it as possible and when I have the unique moments I often feature on my blog, it's those moments which have nourished my mind, my body, and my soul.

I often wonder if I love to travel as much as I do because it's something I've done later in life, something I've worked really hard for and something I crave.  I love new experiences and cultures, meeting the people, exploring the cities, trying all of the food!!

When I came back from Barcelona, I shepherded myself back to my desk and into work and so I just never managed to get around to editing some of the images...until now.

While all around in work is chaotic with portraits, I needed to take myself back to a happy summer time, a time spent with my best friend, a time with heat and sunshine, with ice-cream and swimming and with beauty all around us as we lived in the magical city for just a few days.

There's nowhere like Barcelona, it's as Harriet said, a city of so many faces, beaches, architecture, graffiti and Gaudi, it's busy, it's calm, it's very much an oxymoron, a paradox, a paradigm shift, it is a contradiction and it's only when you have visited that you can understand just what I mean.

Gaudi's La Sagrada Familia is all of those things and more, I wished that I could have spent some time when it was calm and quiet to soak in the most spiritual surroundings but when every visitor is essentially paying for the remainder of the building of the great cathedral, this testament to God and to Gaudi it's creator and architect, well it doesn't pay to let it stand empty for any great length of time.

The madness of this most sacred building being unfinished for so many years does not at all make sense but it's hoped that it should reach completion in around 10 years from now.

And then let me transport you to a historic theme park, Tibidabo, the magical mountain, where a theme park lies directly next to the most beautiful church I think I've ever seen.  We'd waited until late in the day to visit Tibidabo and we couldn't have gone at a better time, the most magical golden sunset I have ever seen set over the mountains and my heart was lit up by the calm and serenity of the most beautiful sight I have ever seen, to enjoy that with your best friend is truly an experience I'll remember for the rest of my life.

My Barcelona days were as much about the rediscovery of myself and the healing of my psyche as they were about sightseeing and exploration and I did just that, I found myself again, I knew when I got on the plane back home that I'd healed more in that week than I had in months, I knew the path I had to take, the path to take more travel because nothing is more healing than exploration and new experiences.