We had a delicious dinner and breakfast cooked by our host Sandra at the Antlers B&B. As is often the case our fellow residents, a couple from Deeside made for good company and conversation.
A day of two halves weather wise, a cloudy start followed by a glorious afternoon.
It was also a walk of two halves!
The B & B is only minutes from the JOG trail and Sandra pointed out a short cut across their land to get us started. Lynn nearly fell over in the muddy field churned up by cows in the first few minutes but saved herself at the last moment.
The first few kilometres were relatively well marked and not to difficult underfoot, we passed Clyth Harbour and the remains of another fishing station, before reaching Clyth Lighthouse.
Things went downhill from here, the path squeezed between a fence and the cliff edge was extremely narrow and dangerous in places, the guide suggested walking inside the fence, which we did. Unfortunately, this meant crossing numerous barbed wire fences with no stiles, sometimes over, sometimes under the fence, impossible with backpacks, so these had to be taken off and passed over the fence or even thrown over.
We were then nearing Whaligoe Steps, apparently an amazing feat of engineering, 330 steps cut into stone to reach a once thriving fishing port. We never found the steps and we also lost the path, at this point we threw in the towel and made our way out to the A9 and walked along the grass verge for a short stretch until we reached the parking area for the steps.
Thereafter things improved, the path was typical coastal path walking, passing numerous geos (inlets with steep rocky sides) and stacks (isolated pinnacles of rock surrounded by the sea). The scenery was absolutely stunning.
Our senses were constantly assaulted by the sight, sound and smell of large gull and guillemot colonies nesting on the ‘geo’ cliffs inlets.
Approaching Wick we passed the remains of the Castle of Old Wick, which formerly had four towers but is looking a bit sad now, as is the old tidal sea water swimming pool, ‘Trinkie Pool’ and Steve was so looking forward to a swim.
The harbour of Wick is thriving, still a working fishing port but also servicing the offshore wind farms.
After checking into our accommodation at Impala guest house we felt obliged to pay a visit to the most northerly Wetherspoons.
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