Simon's Diary
UK Tour 2002
Day 16
Monday 1st April 2002
Today Colin and I drove to John O'Groats. Really we did it just so we could say to people that we've (kind of) done "Lands End to John O'Groats", even if it was in a People Carrier car and it still took us 2 1/2 weeks! Much to our pleasure the journey turned out to be worth it. We took our time getting there, and when I found I was feeling dangerously tired I had a sleep for 3/4 hour so all in all including brakes for meals, Colin's cigarette stops, and fuel top ups, it took 7 hours. However as Evan had told me it should only take 4 hours our return journey was somewhat quicker, taking 3 1/2 hours, which as Evan later said, was "Fuckin' fast!". (Hearing that will make the speeding tickets worth while - I hope!)
Having driven through the Alps I was quite surprised to find the area near Inverness quite Alpine in it's appearance and feel. It's quite a shock to see what a beautiful country you have so close by, and they can even speak English!
As you can see the bright sun light meant the sun glasses were essential
The further North we got the more expensive petrol got. Now I understand why people do the Lands End to John O'Groats trip by alternative methods. There's actually no real justification for petrol to be hiked in these areas by such a degree and even though locals have protested, petitioned and lobbied nothing changes, lets hope they don't get militant otherwise they might not let you get to John O'Groats unless you dress up as petrol pump or oil drum or whatever. As the petrol got more expensive the area became more sparsely populated so that by the time we got to John O'Groats not only were there very few houses, those that did exist were often slightly out of place. For instance one might come across a bungalow, then a miniature castle, a house with spires and all sorts of odd little buildings, it was almost as if the local planning officer had said "OK Mr. McDonald you build your French style chateau farm with Transylvanian spires and folly in the back yard, no one, except mad people who are in a state of delusion from exhaustion, come here anyway, so who gives a shit!"
Old McDonald's (possibly) Chateau and Folly if you look closely
The road is long, with many a winding turn, that brings me
to who knows where..... Can you guess where?
Some people look for the line and some just look for (see next pic)
"Dwink!"
Even if like us, you cheated and drove to John O'Groats,
there's, sadly, still a sense of achievement when you get there.
Colin barely able to stand up unaided after his exhausting walk from
the car
Colin a well deserved look of relief that it's all over finally
Me pretending to be tall and blaming the camera angle for my double
chin
Click on the
picture above to open a panoramic image of the John O'Groats set off finish
point area
The start and finish line, the sign post to Lands End where people can have their photo taken by a local photographer who will add an arm to the sign which says how far and from where you've just come, the small museum, and the strange looking hotel (Which is owned by the same guy who owns the theme park at Land's End) and bar all add to the occasion.
This man drove all the way from Basingstoke, was he trying to escape?
Even here there's Sky News, but Colin doesn't even have enough energy
to look up
after eating his pizza.
We went to the bar where Greg, the bar man, offered to take a photo of the two of us. I won't put it on here because, well Colin doesn't look too good in it, OK then I will!
Greg the bar man's photo of us
We had a nice traditional English supper of tea and pizza, and then after a few more photo's it was time to set off again. We had rather hoped to get back to Pennan before the bar closed, but if it wasn't for the fact that at every turn of the road there were irresistible photo opportunities we would have made it. It took over an hour to get 3 miles from John O'Groats. Here are some of the shots.
"Erm Simon STOP!!!!!!!!,"
"why are you feeling ill?"
"No it's just it's such a beautiful sunset I think I'm gonna cry"
.......... OK OK he didn't say that,
but he did shake a bit with trepidation what ever that means!"
Alright so I too occasionally take pictures of sunsets
About 12 years ago I painted a sky just like this from my imagination
as part of a large triptych set of paintings, and it also had telegraph
poles and a distant house in. (When I get home I'll put a copy here to
show you how close a coincidence this is) There was also a bright streak
of blue under the cloud which hasn't come out in this picture, but was
there. When I saw this I wondered, if, like you do, it might be an omen,
so from that oment, sorry moment, on I drove very very carefully all the
way home. NOT!!!!!!
How pretty
Welcome to the twilight zone
By the way we didn't get back in time for the bar