More miles, 330 steps and a castle

There is no doubt that there is some way that wildlife know when we are about and do their very best to make sure they are not seen by us. No Moray Firth dolphins for us! 

Excellent breakfast looking straight out over the firth and joined by the Americans with whom we chatted before pulling ourselves together, packing the car and setting off for day 2 of our journey. The weather had started by looking a bit brighter, but settled into dull and a bit of drizzle until we approached Wick. 

As we found yesterday, there was flowering gorse everywhere - covering some hillsides and along the roadsides. 

One bucket-list item for today was the Whaligoe Steps, that I remembered having seen Billy Connelly prancing about on and talking about the 'real' women who carried creels of fish from the harbour up the 330 steps and then walking 7 miles to Wick to sell them. 

We started with coffee and scones in the cafe, which was the wrong way round, but it had taken a couple of hours to get there. We were served by a boy of about 12, who took his job very seriously.

The steps are uneven, but manageable, zig-zagging down the cliff to the tiny, exposed 'haven'. At the bottom were a few other people who got in the way of photographing birds on the cliff but we pottered about for a while. There were nesting guillemots, gulls and cormorants. The climb back up was nowhere near as bad as I had feared.

Back into the car and Ian drove into Wick to see if, by chance, the distillery shop was open - it wasn't - so he had to do without, at least for now. There was a gathering of folk outside some centre, presumably having a bit of a party to celebrate the Queen's birthday.

We had to drive a bit of a dogleg up to John O'Groats and left a bit to get to the Castle of Mey, another bucket list place I've wanted to go to for some years. It is very spectacular for what was, essentially, a holiday house, set back from the cliff looking out over the Pentland Firth. 

Although I am a republican, we opted to take the tour of the castle, which was 
quite interesting, light and informal. The gardens were not in their full glory yet, 
but are lovely, divided into lots of 'rooms' even within the walled garden, 
because of the winds. 

After a reviving cup of tea, we drove our last few miles for today back to the hotel. I was a bit concerned about it following a conversation with my cycling colleague, Barry. The entrance and public bar did nothing to alleviate the worries but the room we were allocated was in a seperate building, over the road, which had been a different establishment. It had been upgraded to hotel standard and was clean, bright and comfortable. 

The restaurant was a bit tired but the staff were attentive and the food OK. We walked the last few hundred yards down to where the finger post is, by the harbour and saw a large sculpture depicting how the churning seas throw up great boulders.

Ian and Sue - fish pie with pastry and vegetables.
Ian - a dram of 17 year old Old Pulteney. (He's thinking we may call on the way home, next week!)

Early to bed.

Night 2: Seaview Hotel, John O'Groats