Day Four - Friday

Stats for day four:
Distance: 239 miles
Elapsed time: 12hrs
Driving time: 6h20m
Moving average: 37mph
Corners visited today: 1

There can be no doubt we have done this the right way round; the scenery of the North East coast of Scotland had wowed us on the way to Duncansby Head but it was tame by comparison with Britain's most Northery road, which we followed today to the tiny hamlet of Durness (population 300). En route, we passed from Caithness back into Sutherland, Britain's largest county. According to a very dehydrated local, there has been almost no rain in Sutherland all summer; "...the go-luf balls are fairly pinging off the turf", he reported in a lilting brouge that sounds like an audition for Dr Finlay's Casebook.

Time has very little meaning in Sutherland, unless perhaps it is associated with the tides. We had arranged by phone with Mrs Mackay (who was leading the field in the race to play Dr. Finlay's houskeeper, Janet) for a motorboat to take us across the Sound of Durness at 12h30, giving us time enough for the long drive from Durness to Inverness later in the day...

Sitting in the warm sunshine by the slipway, we reflected that "the Sound of Durness" is a complete misnomer, as there really isn't any sound at all; even the tide comes in silently.

Running exactly on Sutherland time, the ferryman, John Johnson, arrived promptly at 14h00 to take us across the Sound and to drive us a teeth-rattling 12miles to the tip of the Cape in a Mercedes minibus of greatly advanced age and dubious mechanical integrity.

Roughly half way to the Cape, we witnesed the approach of a second, equally delapidated minibus and we relieved to discover that John, a man who redefined taciturnity (perhaps from living in a silent wilderness) was to be replaced for the remainer of the trip by the affable and informative Davey.

Over the sound of rocks pinging off the underside of the vehicle and the axles thudding against the stops for want of anything that might resemble suspension, Davey regaled us with witty aphorisms related to the local history and generally made a big effort to entertain and inform.

Perhaps most astonishing information was that the winds measured at the lighthouse have exceeded 147mph; nobody knows by quite how much as the National Lighthouse Board doesn't have an instrument capable of recording above that figure!

Thankfully, it was flat calm when we arrived to stand as close as safely possible to the top left-hand corner of mainland Britain. Our third corner and by far the toughest.

You may remember earlier today I was waxing lyrical about the scenery between John O' Groats and Durness... Whilst it is undeniably lovely, nothing prepared us for the journey from Durness to Ullapool this afternoon. I doubt there are adequate superlatives to convey the splendour, the ruggedness, the majesty or the sheer beauty of Western Sutherland.

Round every corner (and there are a lot of corners on the single-track road with passing places) there was a new wonder to fill the eye and tempt another stop to take photos.

Sadly the cost of visting four corners in eight days is that there is little time to tarry, so many a purple-fringed mountain and many a glassy loch were captured only in our imaginations; we will simply have to mount another expedition to this exraordinary part of Britain: coming to a blog near you...sometime.

Elated from our vist to the top left-hand corner and awed by our journey through Western Sutherland, we arrived in Inverness on a balmy evening to be greeted by Neil (Paul's Phd supervisor) and his partner, Shiela, whilst we lowered the tone of their tranquil road by arriving on fly-encrusted motorbikes looking like extras from Mad Max.

There ensued a relaxed and entertaining evening during which we were thoroughly spoilt by Shiela's excellent cooking and treated to rather more of their favourite red wine than may have been wise for people facing a long day in the saddle and the promise from the Met office of driving rain and a strong South-Westerly breeze... Needless to say, caution in the case was cast to the same South-Westerly wind!