I've made it!

Just a quick post to say, I've made it to John O'Groats. 955 miles in 17 days (and an hr!), which equates to a daily average of 64miles if you exclude my two rest days. I arrived in Wick (15miles from the end) on Saturday afternoon, and decided to stop over so I could have a relaxed, nonchalant ride in on Sunday morning!

Apologies for the lack of updates, none of the places I've stayed at had a computer and I've relied on libraries for this and my previous post. Needless to say, when you have a long way to go the last thing you want to be doing is hanging about in a library or searching for an internet cafe...

I will post my daily journal for those that are interested, along with a few photos, tomorrow. I fly back this afternoon; yesterday there was only 1 train out of Wick (!) and no flights, on a weekday such as today there are three times as many trains (no kidding) and two flights. The train takes 4hrs to Inverness, where you change for Edinburgh; that's another 4hrs and then you change for a GNER train to London, which I think is about 4.5hrs. Hadn't realised how remote this place really is.

Scotland and the Highlands have been stunning, the most beautiful part of the trip and the friendliest people of the lot (sorry!). I'm so very glad to have finished, I couldn't stand another moment in the saddle (my rear does have sore spots...) but the sense of achievement I felt when I topped the final hill, saw the Orkneys and clear blue sea in between, was awesome. I got my photo taken at the end, signed the book, had a couple of pints of Guinness and got a taxi back to my hotel in Wick, where I promptly fell asleep...

Thanks for the messages of support & all the texts, I may have been cycling alone but I never felt alone. More anon...

Fred.