Running out of road!

Hi there Blog-followers. Sorry there's been a wee gap in posting this last installment, a bit of a cliff-hanger, but here's last bit to finish off the story.

I looked out of my Inverness hotel room window at 5am on Sunday to a grey, rainy morning. By the time we'd sorted ourselves out, said goodbye to Jo & Patrick and hello to Jen (who had given up her Sunday to support us on the final day) the rain had stopped.

We made our way up the A9, across the Moray & Cromarty Firths. The A9 between these firths is not good for cycling, but at this time of the morning on a Sunday it was reasonably safe. We passed Tain, Golspie and Brora. You have to keep your wits about you as drivers in Scotland tend to cover large distances fast and the roads are reminiscent of the Isle of Man TT course.

The clouds began to break up, but along with the sun came a blustery headwind making it tough going. As expected, Berriedale Braes was a bit cheeky. Helmsdale to Newport is particularly hilly with a total ascent of nearly 1400ft, with a couple of particularly long climbs.

The strong headwind didn't make things any easier.

We knew this would be a long hard day and so planned plenty of short stops to munch more calories and stretch aching limbs. Like Lands End, parties of other End to Enders started to appear, all battling their way Northward.

Having switched to the A99, we continued up through Wick with a growing sense that the road was running out as the Orkney Islands came into view.

Few words were spoken on those last miles - each of us absorbed in our own reflections about the journey and it's immanent conclusion. That last hill, though not particularly hard, took every ounce of my strength and the remainder of my Galaxy Minstrals and Jelly Beans.

We made to the the end of the road 6.30pm Sunday 30.5.10. The sun shone (and so did we).

Stats for the last day:

Distance = 111 miles

Average speed = 12.5 mph

Max speed = 35 mph

Stats for the whole ride:

Total distance = 1066 miles
Total ascent = approx 47200 feet

And just to complete the collection, here's photos of our support drivers for the last few days. Jo & Patrick (on the ferry to Ardgour) and Jen at John O'Groats.

Thanks to all of you who've taken the time to follow our adventures on this Blog, for donating money to For Our Children, and for the many messages of support we received over these two weeks of cycling the length of our diverse and fascinating country.

It's possible that we might add another post or two later as still have a number of silly photos up our sleeves and words of wisdom to share!