Travelling Fletchers

Before we get to today, we need to go back to last night.

Charlie and I had to go on seagull watch.
Not watching out for seagulls. Protecting our belongings from one particular seagull.

First, it ate from Monty’s food bowl. Then it dragged his water bowl across the pitch. Next, it stole freshly laundered socks that were drying.

Finally, it chased Charlie and pecked her toes!

Thankfully, this morning started gull-free.
Or at least, pesky-gull-free.

Breakfast was a Scottish favourite – square sausage in round rolls.

Square sausage, also known as Lorne sausage, is made by forming sausage meat into a block and cutting it into square slices.

Which, of course, we then put into round rolls.

Once we were ready, we set off through Keiss, stopping at Duncansby Head.

The sun was shining and it looked like we were in for another beautiful day.

Then…

Boom.

Mist.

That quick.

Within moments, we could only see about 100 yards in front of us.

Poor Charlie had chosen today to sit in the front so she could enjoy the views.

She got a front-row seat to absolutely nothing.

Even the lighthouse was difficult to see.
We had planned to walk to the famous Duncansby Stacks.

And when I say planned, what I really mean is attempted.

The mist had other ideas.

And so did the dog.

Have you ever heard of the symptoms of a breezy butthole?

Well, Monty had that this morning.

Every time the wind blew, he would spin around and sit down.

When I was training Monty, our trainer explained that dogs need to learn everything in different conditions.

First, you train in normal weather.

Then in the rain.

Then in the dark.

Then in the dark and the rain.

Once they have mastered that, you add more variations. Each new condition can feel a bit like starting all over again.

Now, I have done lots of training with Monty.

But I have never trained him in thick mist, surrounded by sheep, with a breeze going up his bottom.

The result was a dog on a lead cartwheeling up and down the hillside.

Meanwhile, Google Maps was only so useful.

What should have been a 20-minute walk became much longer. The hardest part was not knowing exactly where we were going or how much further we had to walk.

Cameron volunteered to go on ahead.
Eventually, he came back with the news that even if the stacks were just around the corner, there was little point continuing.

The mist was so thick that he could not even see down to the coastline.

So we gave up and headed back.

By then, the mist had come in so much that we could no longer see the cliff face where all the birds had been nesting when we passed earlier.

Which made us very pleased that we had stopped there on the way up.

And even more pleased because we had seen puffins!

We had watched them on the cliffs and even managed to capture photos of them.
So no, we did not see the Duncansby Stacks.

But we saw puffins.

I will take that.

And then, of course, as soon as we left Duncansby Head, the sun came out and started to burn away the misty, foggy atmosphere.

Of course it did.

From there, we travelled on to John o’ Groats.

It was much less commercial than Land’s End and seemed to be mainly full of coffee shops.

Which meant we had plenty of places to choose from for lunch.

Our final sightseeing stop was Dunnet Head.

Dunnet Head is actually the most northerly point of mainland Britain – not John o’ Groats.

We stopped to take in the views from the high cliffs across the Pentland Firth towards Orkney.

And this time, we could actually see them.
Finally, we arrived at Dunnet Bay campsite.

Another stretch of the NC500 complete.

Today we failed to see the stacks, found puffins in the mist, visited the most famous point in the north and then stood at the actual most northerly point of mainland Britain.

All with a dog who spent part of the morning cartwheeling around a hillside because the wind was blowing up his bottom.

Just another normal day on the NC500.
NC500 miles covered so far – around 150 miles.

Miles still to go – around 366 miles.