the beach
Day 62 Land’s End to John O’Groats – Brora to Helmsdale
Distance: 18km
Cumulative distance: 1629km
After all that, the weather wasn’t even too bad last night. Yes, I woke up at 3am a bit chilly, and yes my hip was poking into the ground due to my lack of a puncture-less sleeping mat, but I managed to fall back into dreamland pretty quickly and actually slept in til about 9am. No one came by my tent to ask for financial reimbursement, and on my way out I dropped into the office one more time only to discover it was still unmanned. The toilet paper had been replaced in the ablution blocks though, so somebody must have been around. I wasn’t hanging around to find out and soon enough I was back down at the other campsite, jumping over the bolted gate and taking myself back down to the trail which was about to whisk me through the Brora Golf Course.
Fittingly I spoke to Mum and Dad at this point – three years prior on Dad’s birthday we’d played golf here with Caroline. At the same time back home, Malcolm Turnbull had just taken over from Tony Abbott as Australian Prime Minister continuing the tumult of our government at federal level which still hasn’t died down. Let me tell you about Caroline for a moment. I met her and her family back in 2015 when I first worked on the farm, and we bonded almost instantly over a mutual love of sport. They lived up the road in Culrain at the time, and she was one of the villagers who worked tirelessly in staving off the dodgy developers who almost came in and took control of the castle. When she’s not fighting a good cause, Caroline works as the greenkeeper at Bonar Bridge Golf Course, where she has also taken me for a round of golf. All I had to do was turn up – she’d taken care of the green fees, club hire and golf balls (plenty, thankfully, because I was spraying them everywhere). When I took Mum and Dad up to the farm later that year, she organised us a round of golf at Brora, and again wouldn’t take a penny for it. But that’s just Caroline, she’d give you the shirt off her back. Her and Chink were kind enough to take Lisa and I along to a Scottish football game one day, the Highland derby between Ross County and Inverness. The latter won, unfortunately. I’ve also watched grand slam finals and Old Firm derbies up at her and Chink’s old place, and Olivia and I went up there one night with Robert and Anne to celebrate Caroline’s 40th birthday. It was fantastic to catch up with her and Chink over the weekend, and walking between the fairways at Brora brought back strong memories of the time we had a round there. It’s a links golf course with a twist. Sheep are still allowed to graze its green expanses, which means every green is protected by an electric fence.
I walked the length of the golf course with the sandy beach to my right acting as a barrier between me and the water. I spent a lot of time walking the beach today – it was brilliant being back on the coast and unlike Cornwall there was barely another soul about despite the sunshine. There were no cliffs down here either meaning this was far less strenuous than my first couple of weeks. But there were still a few obstacles that needed careful navigation, namely all of the little burns flowing into the ocean – none of which had pedestrian bridges. Some of them I could skip over, and every now and then I could hop across the rocks. But occasionally I had to get a bit creative, given I’d promised myself a few days of dry feet. The first one I headed upstream a little way and was able to stand on a rusty farm gate which gave me enough leverage to propel myself over the water. Next I went upstream again until I found a little railway bridge. I hauled myself up then balanced precariously with the railway to my left and a decent drop to the water to my right. I needed about four or five steps to get across before I could climb down to some more sturdy ground. The third one was the toughest of the lot. Upstream I found another railway bridge but this one was about 20m above me. Determined to keep my feet dry I walked underneath the bridge then scaled the steep green hill it was built into. I checked both ways to make sure the coast was clear then jumped the fence onto the railway. This was much safer than the previous crossing, so long as I was off it before the next train came past. I’d clocked the rough time of day to expect these things yesterday and was pretty confident I’d be all right. Still, I didn’t dally and once I was across the river I jumped over the fence and climbed another hill ending up in a farmer’s paddock with sweeping views out to the north sea. I stopped here for lunch because the place was just too perfect to pass up.
From there I went back down to the beach and was more than happy to walk along the sand. Looking out to the water I noticed about four or five seals in the water. That’s pretty cool, I thought, until I shifted my gaze to further up the beach and saw about 50 more of the things sunbathing. This was incredible! I kept walking towards them and one by one they nonchalantly took themselves off into the water, so by the time I arrived at the smelly little spot they’d been congregating there were none left on the land. I looked out into the water and saw a heap of little heads peering back at me. Every single one of them had their back to the ocean and were just treading water watching my every move. I took a few snaps then continued along up the beach. A few hundred metres further down I looked to my right and realised about half of them had followed me! I stood there for a while longer on the edge of the beach. If I stared too long at one, it would disappear under the water only to bob up again about 30m away, and assume the same position just at a safer distance. These seals followed me all the way down to the next headland before returning to the rest of their pod. Did you know seals and dogs are kind of related? Now I can see why.
The rest of the few miles into Helmsdale was along the A9, and I made great time charging through Portgower before coming into town. Helmsdale is a nice little place at the foot of some beautiful looking hills over to the west. It was not even 3pm by the time I strode into town, and soon enough I’d found a restaurant which served me the largest plate of fish and chips I’ve ever come across. Might as well have a second lunch I thought, and tucked right in. I’m staying in a hostel tonight and shall ramp it up again tomorrow and aim for a place just short of Lybster.
