Strathy Beach

Yesterday evening Angela realised she was starting to turn into her own mother, Margery. That's right Margery, what's all this Marge business?  No respect! It has become a nightly ritual to bring out the map, guide books and refer to the internet where possible. In Margery's day there was no internet, so all planning was done using guide books. 

Just before nine this morning we walked down to the harbour at John o' Groats, conscious that the day visitors would soon begin to arrive. The morning weather bright and clear. We could easily see across to Orkney, just six miles away. We had considered taking the ferry across, but decided to leave it for another time when the weather would be a little warmer. Photographs of us at that famous sign and around the harbour done we returned to the van. Shortly after a sparkling new Westfalia Sven Hedin van arrived. Don't be jealous Marge. The man came over to look at Marge. Don't they always? Coincidentally he had messaged John after he linked our blog to one of the Facebook groups for Westfalia T4 Exclusives and James Cooks. the man had asked if he had any internal pictures of Marge. Cheeky. Fancy us meeting in a little old place like John o' Groats! 

Taking advantage of the beautiful weather we walked along the coast path to the headland. Down below was shell beach where we spent a while sorting through the many hundreds of shells. We managed to find a Groatie Buckie, considered to be a lucky Caithness shell. Back at Marge, our Groatie Buckie stored in a safe place we sat enjoying the warm sunshine and decided to wait until after lunch before setting of. We are enjoying every day of our trip, even the wet ones strangely. We are fired up, our heads full of trips and experiences we'd like to do in the future.

Angela realised we were near to Dunscansby Lighthouse, where there were some sea stacks. The old red sandstone stacks of Dunscansby date back over 400 million years, slowly eroding away with the power of the north sea. Today was a good day to visit them, but not to photograph them. The sun was so bright it was difficult to obtain a decent photograph. But we both agreed, they were best seen with the human eye. 

Nearly half past three Marge, best get a wiggle on, we've only driven two miles so far. Tonight's stop was over an hour away. We drove through Thurso, the last large town we would see for a while, then across the moorland where a farmer towing a large sheep trailer overtook the van behind Marge and Marge, she was on the uphill so accelerating. Suddenly he pulled in, nearly hitting Marge and running her off the road. You, bloody stupid idiot , you nearly did for us. Forget you had the trailer on did you. Angela was a little shaken and so was Marge. We like to think our Groatie Buckie shell being on board 'saved our bacon'.

Relieved to arrive at our overnight stop we were surprised to see the other Sven Hedin van there. A little more talk about our vans and they set off to stay overnight further along. We're sure we'll meet them again further along the route.

After talking to a Scottish couple who had parked up at the top overlooking the bay, we walked through the sand dunes and down onto the beautiful sandy beach with steep cliffs to one end. The views out towards the Pentland Firth of foaming rolling waves, enjoyed by a couple of surfers was idyllic.

A wedge of swans flew over in the fading light of early evening. We watched a lone fisherman cast his line before heading back to Marge, rabbits fleeing in all directions from the vibration of our footsteps over the dunes.

Tomorrow we must try and leave a little earlier, arriving too late in the day at our next stop is tiring, especially when we will want to walk out and explore. And we're in agreement with Marge. Would all maniacs please stay off the road!