Hexham Courant

Barney gets a whole page feature in our local Hexham Courant!
Still time to match a mile - see www.DogsUnite.org.UK/match-a-mile for details.
Also donations page is still open at www.JustGiving.com/BarneysLongWalk

Postscript

As a few of you will know, our youngest grandson, Archie, was diagnosed with cancer just a few days after we started the trek. We deliberated over whether to terminate the walk but decided to continue and be prepared to finish at short notice should we be needed in Australia where he lives.
His parents, our son Dan and his partner Sally, have had a testing time as treatment progressed. They live over 200 miles from the childrens hospital in Melbourne where Archie is being treated and they have two other boys.
Fortunately, Sally's mum has been able to help out (she lives in Seattle) through a very difficult time when Archie has had chemotherapy and two operations. Now it's our turn to assist, so we are flying out to Melbourne on Wednesday to be with the boys through the next 3 months while Archie has more chemotherapy.

Day 133 Home!

A 6 O'clock taxi saw us at Thurso station for the 6:50 to Inverness. Then it was trains to Edinburgh, Carlisle and finally Haltwhistle where Sue picked us up - thanks!
Before we knew where we were, we were having a meal in our local, the Crown in Catton and that's almost it...

Day 132 John O' Groats

A rest day!
The weather stayed fine so we simply... chilled out.
We finished by visiting the Seaview Hotel and I had quite the best seafood meal I have ever had!

Day 131 Keiss - John O' Groats!

Well, what a final day!
The guidebook describes this as not suitable for children or dogs and we had two (I'll let you decide who they are...)!
A glorious walk along cliff edges where sometimes you hang onto the fence because the drop is so close! The 40mph winds never really happened - it was just a classic windy coastal walk with the wind in the right direction.
We met up with Geoff at a couple of points which helped progress a lot - hot drinks and food! Again, our heavy sacks were in the van and Barney carried nothing - he loved it!
Then, after a long day, we arrived at John O' Groats and... surprise, surprise, Kay, Nigel & Guide dog Jackie appeared at the end! They'd travelled all the way up from Falmouth to greet us! They saw us off at Land's End and I remember Nigel saying 'we might get up to John O'Groats to greet you' but never really expected it, as it is a 900 mile trip (don't we know)! He even posted Facebook posts to make it look as though they were still at home! What a finish - even the sun was shining!

Day 130 A9 - Keiss

A full day for Wendy & Meg. First forest, then steadily more easy down to Watten where we enjoyed our first shop since Ullapool!
Next was a change of route - Andy Robinson in the guide describes the crossing of the Moss of Killimster as hard - if he says that, he means hard! Given that it is hard because of the, let's say, damp nature of the terrain and the fact that everywhere is already waterlogged this year and we'd had steady rain last night, we decided to bite the bullet and walk the road instead. Barney really slows up on roads normally but having Meg along made all the difference and he trotted along at normal speed!
Eventually we left the road and headed for the beach! This was the East coast and our first sea en route since Devon although we had camped next to Loch Broom at Ullapool.
Geoff had spotted a fish & chip van in Keiss earlier where we finished so we raced off in anticipation to find it had shut 10 minutes earlier! Yet another dehydrated meal it was then...

Day 129 Dail Righe - A9

More track and eventually we met up with Geoff & Wendy again for Wendy & Meg to join us for the walk whilst Geoff did the transport. Jos had described the camper van previously as the (n)ice cream van as it is cream coloured so Geoff & Wendy presented us with... ice creams!
A picture below shows Meg in a stream - her favourite position in water is sitting down!
The destination was the A9 but we weren't camping on it!Geoff picked us up and we made our way to the Watten campsite - not the best one of our trip! The walking was good however apart from Jos dropping her Australian cap and we having to return (in the camper van) to find it!

Day 128 Kinbrace - Dail Righe

Wendy and here dog, Meg, came part way for this one and it immediately started hard! We have found that forestry and other changes in Scotland has meant the route details have been outdated in some instances - this was one of them. A struggle to get through what should have been an easy stretch made hard by a new forestry plantation. This was followed by a big climb and then miles of peat hags mixed with waterlogged ground. The trig point at the top is stood on a mound of peet which is slowly being eroded - eventually it will fall over! Then followed a long land rover track and finally we reached our camping spot for the night - quite a relief!

Day 127 Loch Choire - Kinbrace

We arranged to meet Geoff & Wendy part way through todays trek and then Wendy walk with us while Geoff took the sacks - what a man!
After a lovely walk around the loch (spot the deer in the pic below) where we saw divers close to, we then had a 10 mile trudge along a land rover track - very remote with spacious views however. Wendy then joined us for the last 5 or so miles to Kinbrace where we camped next to the railway line!

Day 126 Crask Inn - Loch Choire

As well as staying at a pub, we have met up with friends Geoff & Wendy from Arisaig who we last saw on the stage from Fort William where Geoff took our bags and Wendy walked with us for the day. They are now taking most of our food so we only need carry supplies until we meet them again in two days.
We stopped early at Loch Choire - it's a lovely spot and we are definitely feeling tired after the last few days, all of which have been hard.

Day 125 Glen Cassley - Crask Inn

Heading for a pub! We've wanted to stay at this inn - one famous amongst walkers and fishermen alike! Situated in the middle of a large expanse of remote country, it was quite a walk to get to it. The ground was very wet and although we could see it in the distance, it took several hours of hard walking, including a difficult stream crossing to arrive!

Day 124 Glen Oykel - Glen Cassley

Wet to start again! Another very remote section of the walk as we traversed around the flanks of Ben More Assynt and headed towards Loch Shin. The route followed an old track and then we decided to leave it and follow hydro tracks to avoid what we thought might be a difficult river crossing but when we arrived, having detoured several miles, the water level was very low!(that's not the picture below which was just a little side stream!)

Day 123 Knockdamph - Glen Oykel

We had all been this way before but the plus this time was that the bar at the Oykel Bridge Hotel was open! Sandwiches and soft drinks were readily consumed while we listened to the fishermans talk before they all went off for an afternoons fishing.
The cattle grid is well known to us - the last time here the gate was locked so we were deciding how to get Barney across. Jos walked across to see if she could find a gap in the fence and Barney decided to follow by jumping it! Needless to say he didn't make it and fhis legs went down between the bars! Luckily nothing was broken, just a grazed shin and he had to be lifted out.

A cattle grid we know well!

Day 122 Inverlael - Knockdamph

Taxi back to Inverlael and off we go for the final section of the trek across to John O'Groats which is still about 130 miles away!
This was another section of the Cape Wrath trail which is new to us as we went a different way before. Fine initially but then very hard going on a long trackless section before we reached Loch an Daimh and the bothy at Knockdamph.
Surprise at the bothy - a fire was alight! A man and his two sons were staying for a few days and so the bothy was dry and warm!

An Teallach seen for almost the last time