After recovering from wading through the Moss of Killimster I was able to make good progress after a night’s recovery and a good breakfast at The Brown Trout in Watten.
Saturday 23rd July 2016
Started with porridge and a cooked breakfast, plus copious amounts of juice and coffee. Posted my camera lens home, gave away [most of] my Gorilla Tape. Left a little after 11am.
First I was walking through meadows and country lanes, then a forest. At the A9, a fantastic view over the Flow Country – but also realising I had to cross this vast expanse.
“The Flow Country” is the landscape in the far north of Scotland (Caithness and Sutherland). It is an area of blanket bog – which basically means not just boggy patches but bog everywhere – as if the majority of the land is under water. Dry land is a rarity. However, the landscape can be quite beautiful and it apparently plays a role in preventing climate change since the bogs capture carbon.
Then struggled to cross a stream. The author gave 3 alternatives and I had to use the last resort. Realised author will do all he can to avoid roads, even pleasant country lanes, so I will be skeptical.
The author I was referring to was Andy Robinson, author of my guidebook The End to End Trail. After my experience on the Moss of Killimster the previous day I was a bit frustrated by the approach of avoiding road walking at any cost. Today’s difficult scenario was caused by a river I could not cross. If I had been following the guide book in the right direction I would simply have walked further until I reached the bridge, but since I was following it backwards, I had to double back on myself when I found the river to be impassable.
Lots of road walking, then a late night by the River Thurso next to abandoned cottage.
Spending: £10
Distance: 22.9 miles [view on map]
Mood: 🙂 -> 😐
The caterpillar is impressive – wish I could meet one.