[This walk was completed on the 26th May, 2023]

I’m back at Duncansby Head, and it is another beautiful and sunny day. What a view! All the way to the Orkneys.

Today I’m following the John o’Groats Trail (JOG Trail for short) to a place called Freswick. It is reassuring to find a proper coastal trail, but less reassuring to discover the trail is “aspirational” in places. Fellow walker, Jon Combe, reported the path as muddy and difficult.

Because of this, I reversed my usual arrangement and left the van at John o’Groats, just in case I couldn’t get through via the trail and had to turn back. This means I first had to drive to Freswick (such a tiny place that I missed it the first time and whizzed past!) and leave my bike.

But, so far, so good. I’m pleased to be following a well-trodden path. Look at all those people ahead. What are they looking at?

Turns out, they are bird watchers and are admiring the views of the rock stacks that line this part of the coast, and one particular one that is just underneath the cliff. This rock stack is covered in birds. What a noise!

Unfortunately, I haven’t brought my binoculars, and the birds are hard to photograph because the near side of the stack is in shadow. What a pity, because I am sure I can see puffins. Puffins! Finally.

The view ahead is beautiful. More rock stacks and dramatic cliffs. That’s my route for today.

After walking a mile or so along the top of the cliffs, I turn and take a photo looking back. Duncansby lighthouse is just visible as a white blob on the hill. The bird watchers look like ants from this distance. You can clearly see the rock stacks they were looking at.

The walking is easy here, with a wide path. A few other walkers have made it this far from the car park – not proper walkers. Strollers. I feel a little irrated to share the path with others, and I speed up to overtake the woman ahead.

I’m not used to company when walking in northern Scotland!

Now, I’m alone. The views from the cliffs are staggering, with beautiful rock fomations, more rocks stacks, and the cries of seabirds nesting on their ledges. Sadly, my camera is pointing into the morning sun, so my photographs don’t do the place justice.

There are seals in the sea below, but I can’t take a proper photograph of them either.

I stop to take a photograph looking back, where the light is more flattering and shows the stacks in all their glory. Love the colours too. Soft reds, yellow umbre, and brilliant greens – all above a slate-blue sea.

I look ahead along the cliffs. Is that Skirza head in the distance? If so, then Freswick is just beyond and my walk will be short and easy today.

A movement catches my right eye. Turn and pull the camera up… and just catch a blurry shot of a fleeing deer.

I crest a hill and see two walkers coming towards me. Proper walkers, with poles and back packs.

We stop for a brief chat. They are maybe German, maybe Dutch and in their 60s, at a guess. The man is holding a pair of muddy walking shoes in his hand, and he asks what the path is like ahead. He has already had to stop to change into his boots because of the mud.

I reassure them that the next stretch of path to John o’Groats is in good condition, and we continue on our separate ways.

The top of the cliffs are fairly featureless. I check my map and discover I’ve walked past Kiln of Flux, Shins Cleave, over Hill of Crogodale and Burnt Hill, and am now approaching Fast Geo.

I stop on the other side of Fast Geo (at least, I think this is where I am) and take photos of the magnificent rock formations along the cliffs.

The geos are hard to photograph. Deep and narrow, their depths are lost in shadow when I take photographs. I think this one – the most dramatic on the walk – is called Wife Geo.

I stop to rest on a ledge of rock, overlooking another beautiful cliff face. It’s nearly 1:30pm and time for lunch. What a spot! Just me and the sea birds on the cliffs, seals in the water… and maybe puffins on the ledge below. I really wish I had bought my binoculars.

I take photos of the puffins using my zoom lens, so that I can blow the photos up later on my laptop and see them more clearly.

Don’t stop long for lunch. I’m not very hungry these days.

Onwards. Look at those dramatic ledges in the sea below me. A pool looks so geometrically rectangular, it looks as though it has been man-made.

The ground is getting boggier. This is a stream. In rainier months it probably ends in a waterfall over the cliff, but for the moment it has created a muddy and sluggish marsh.

I can see why the walkers I met earlier had to change from their walking shoes into their walking boots.

Slow progress now, as I keep stopping to take photographs. Cliffs and birds and pretty pink thrift. It is a very photogenic landscape. Check my map… I think this is Skippie Geo.

The path has remained relatively obvious, only disappearing in boggy areas and on stony sections of cliff. Occasionally, I come across a JOG Trail marker post, providing reassurance that I am still on the proper trail.

As I get closer to Skirza Head, the grassy path becomes a gravel track. Was this once an old quarry?

And then I join a farm track. I’m heading inland now, along a route dictated by JOG Trail signs. “Active Farmyard ahead,” warns a sign.

I think the people who set up the JOG Trail have worked hard to get local landowners onside. I’m very grateful that his farmer allows walkers to traipse through his farmyard.

And a very neat farmyard it is too. Hello lambs! Look how big you’ve grown. Sadly, I suspect your days are numbered now.

The farm sits at the end of a public road and I’m walking through a scattered settlement called Skirza. The sea is across the fields and on my left, as the shore swoops inland to form Freswick bay.

What a long straight road this is.

I pass a sign to the “Harbour”. Here, my map shows a pier and a description, “Haven of Skirza”. If I was feeling fresher, I would go down to investigate the harbour, but I’m feeling very tired, so I stick to the long, straight road.

Hello cow. Do you have triplets to look after? Very well done, madam. Beautiful calves.

Oh, hello another cow. Do you have quads to look after? I’m not sure they’re all yours, but they are very fine young bullocks.

I really do like cows… when I’m on the other side of the fence.

The last half-mile of any walk is always the longest, and the hardest. These colourful bluebells cheer me up – a refreshing mix of blue and white.

It’s nearly the end of May and I wonder if the bluebells are still blooming in England and Wales? I’ve been in Scotland for one calendar month now, and am beginning to feel a little homesick.

I’m also feeling very tired. I expected my fitness to improve as the weeks of walking progressed but, if anything, the opposite has happened. I’ve even had to reduce my mileage because of fatigue.

Nearly finished now. There is Freswick beach ahead, and an impressive building that looks like a fortification. Is it a stately home, or a castle? I will find out tomorrow, when I walk past it.

I’ve left my bike down a little side lane. Always a relief to find nobody has stolen it.

Usually, I cycle to the beginning of my walk, when my muscles are fresher. So, I wasn’t looking forward to the bike ride back to my van at John o’Groats – but, in fact, I fly along. There is no wind today!

This morning, I left my comfortable hotel in Castletown, and I’m booked into an Airbnb place. Call me a wimp, but I’ve had enough of camper van life. I need the luxury of a clean bed and a private shower.

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[Sadly, I later look at my photos and the “puffins” turned out to be guillemots!]

Wildlife seen: seals, seabirds, deer, but no puffins.

Miles walked today = a miserly 5.5 miles

Total distance around coast = 5,069.5 miles

Route:

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