Brora

July 19, 2019

It was a beautiful morning when we woke up and it would stay that way for most of the morning. It try to rain a few times during the day and occasionally it got quite cold but overall the weather was pretty good.

Our route out of Evanton took us on lovely country roads for the first thirty kilometers or so but an Tain we were spat out onto the A9 which would take us all the way to Brora. The A9 wasn't as bad as we feared it might be and there was no sign of the heavy timber trucks from the logging industry that we had been warned about.

Second breakfast of boiled eggs and views of some sheep.

John o'Groats only 83 miles away via the direct route.

We stopped for a while at Golspie, first to look at its beach (which is apparently an attraction) followed by the Big Burn and finally Dunrobin Castle. The castle is the most northerly of Scotland's stately homes and is the seat of the Earl of Sutherland. We didn't go in (thirteen quid and we didn't have time to make it worthwhile) but it is an interesting looking building.

The campsite just north of Brora is separated from the beach, a much nicer one than at Golspie, by a golf course. The first thing we did after checking in, even before setting up the tent, was to take a walk to the beach and enjoy the tern roost there. It was full of Arctic Terns plus a few Common Terns plus various shore birds including quite a few Golden Plovers and a handful of Common Ringed Plovers . The Arctic Terns, which breed just off the golf course, aggressively defended their turf even though we must have been well over a hundred meters from the nesting area. It was rather disturbing to see people with their dogs unleashed among the terns and very close to the nests.

Today's ride: 68 km (42 miles)
Total: 2,340 km (1,453 miles)

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