Day 83 & 84. Fri & Sat 26th, 27th May. Rockfield to Golspie.

The unplanned and unexpected day off had me feeling refreshed and ready to rock. Pants and socks washed, 2 great nights sleep in the caravan and suitably watered and fed. I crossed over the headland to Portmahomack and began the walk along the Dornoch Firth. It wasn't the most exciting walk but at least it was on the waters edge and not on the roads. For a while anyway, at Inver I had to box inland and back onto the road to get over the river.

It always cheers me up when I meet a Westie and this little beauty was a real treat, my Teddy would love to have a run around the garden with this little lady.

I was famished by the time I got to Tain, spoiled for choice with cafes I nipped into the first one on my side of the road and cleared up a full Scottish breakfast in record time. As I was leaving, I got chatting to a couple who were also just leaving the cafe, Ian and Carrie, all the way from Brigg in Lincolnshire, up here on holiday in their motorhome. Lovely to meet you guys and thank you for your donation to the MCF. 🥰

I had to hang around for a while as a group of guys were planning to meet me and open the lodge for a look around.

A cuppa and a slice of cake was just the ticket while we had a chat, it was a long hard afternoon when I eventually got away. There was nowhere to camp as it was all road walking, farmers fields full of cows and sheep to the left and flood plains to the right.

It was nearly 8pm when I finally crawled into Dornoch, I'd had my longest walk to date, 23.7 gruelling miles and I knew it. You won't be at all surprised to hear where I headed !!! The floor in the Eagle Inn was constructed of cold tiles, absolute heaven to cool down my bare feet while I celebrated the long walk with a few sherbets !!! 🥵🍺 as ever, there were some lovely people to meet. A chap came over and introduced himself, a paramedic from Skegness who's a good friend of lots of Freemasons in the Skegness area, he'd seen the news clip on BBC Look North when I set off on New Years Day and he was up in Scotland as the support driver for a bunch of Lincolnshire guys cycling the NC500 for charity. A bit later, I'd gone up to the bar for one last pint before I headed out to find a camping pitch and a guy called George came over and shook my hand and paid for my pint. George and his wife Isobel were up from Bo'ness down near Edinburgh, George is a Freemason and also a scrutineer at the race track I'd seen from Dickie's plane. He suggested that if I needed a place to camp, I should stop by the track as there was a big karting event on this weekend. See, all I get is earache from you lot that I'm on a giant pub crawl but it pays to be a fully fledged practicing alcoholic !!! 🫣 how else would I find out all this essential information and meet all these lovely people ???

It was just after 10pm when I left the pub, too late to try and book into the campsite. Instead I took Dickie up on his kind offer to camp near his hangar at the airstrip. It was perfect, lovely and quiet with well trimmed, comfortable grass.

I've got to say, probably the most expensive clothes horse I've ever used to air my rancid socks !!! 🫣😬

It was only 14.5 miles the next day. Some nice walking along the waters edge watching some very large seal colonies basking on the shore while the tide was out.

It tried to rain 3 or 4 times but it didn't come to anything more than a few light showers. It was mid afternoon when I reached the race track and there was still some karts out testing getting ready for tomorrow's race day. I met George and Isobel and was introduced to the lovely people in Mo's Kitchen. They took it upon themselves to try and ensure I put on 2 stone during my short stay, a huge evening meal, a full breakfast on Sunday morning and a Red Cross parcel full of goodies to take away with me. That was very generous of you guys, thank you soo much for you're hospitality. 🥰

I was absolutely shattered and the wind was freezing so I grabbed a shower and hit the sack just after 9pm, I was a very tired little boy... 🥱😴