[This walk was completed on Monday the 20th May, 2024]

What a difference a day makes! Yesterday was misty and damp, but today is brilliant sunshine with blue skies and a clear horizon. How wonderful!

Today is also my father’s birthday. He was in his 80s when he died in a residential home, and he had suffered from deteriorating mental faculties and physical capacity – so that in the end his life was pretty limited. But I still miss him very much.

I started my coastal-walking trek when he was still alive, but he never really understood what I was doing. My father was not a nature lover, and preferred to be indoors with a good film on the TV (a western or a war film) rather than outdoors.

Leaving Badbea behind (I never did visit the abandoned village!), I reach a place called Ousdale. There is a large, well-kept farm below the road and I can see the sea in the distance.

The sea! It alway gladdens my heart when I can see the coast again.

The A9 is relatively quiet at the moment. I pass a “ghost” bridge, that once must have carried the old main road across the Ousdale Burn.

A little further down the road is a sign that says, “Warning, Ice sensor.” How weird. Is this strange metal post the ice sensor? What does it actually do – is it a cold weather warning system?

I sit on the wooden steps leading up to the mysterious contraption, and have a quick drink and a snack. My energy levels have much improved since my shaky start a few days ago, but I still tire easily.

Onwards. The road has swung away from the coast, but the inland scenery is very pleasant. Stone walls encluse fields of grass, interspersed with plantations of fir trees, and in the distance are the purple tops of hills.

I make rapid progress. The road gradually curves round and I am now heading in a southward direction. The sea comes in sight again.

Soon, I reach a place where a remnant of the older “ghost” road forms a long lay-by. And, I take the opportunity to leave the A9 for a while.

In fact, the lay-by provides a parking place for visitors to a nearby broch – The Ousdale Broch. This was apparently restored and stabilised four years ago as part of a programme to preserve these ancient structures across Caithness. This one is probably 2000 years old, and was home to the ancient Celtic people who once inhabited this land.

I consider going to visit the broch, but the map suggests it is a good 1/2 mile round trip, and I am reluctant to add any further mileage to today’s walk.

So I perch on a nearby stone and have another drink and a rest. Perhaps one day I will return by car and explore all the places I didn’t visit when I was walking the coast! (Another coastal walker, Andy Philips, is doing exactly this.)

Below me is the remains of an ancient road – The Ord Road – one of the oldest in Caithness. It is shown as a track on my OS map and I was half-wondering whether I could try to follow it towards Helmsdale.

But, as I watch, a man with a rucksack is working his way very slowly through the valley below my vantage point. He is too far away for me to see clearly what he is doing, but he isn’t making much progress and seems to spend a lot of time prodding the ground with his walking pole.

I decide to stick to the A9. Onwards.

I come to another lay-by and a sign – Welcome to Sutherland. Sutherland? Haven’t I been in Sutherland before? Well, I definitely haven’t been here before, but I do remember that name.

There is a strange bee-hive shaped memorial nearby. The plaques are too weathered to make out clearly but I can see the name Wm Welch and the dates 1872 and/or 1878. William Welch sounds vaguely familiar too, but I can’t recall where I have heard it before.

Feeling a bit perplexed by these half-remembered names, I eat another snack bar, and carry on.

I’m approaching a sharp U bend, where the A9 passes over the Ord Burn. The river runs through the bottom of a deep valley, barely visible from the road.

Around the bend, and my walk suddenly becomes quite unpleasant. This first section is fine – I climb over the crash barrier and walk close to edge of the drop. But, later on the verge narrows…

… and I am forced to walk along the edge of the road itself on an uncomfortable verge of loose stones.

The traffic is fairly light but, when it does come, it comes f a s t. And the sharp bends make it hard for the drivers to see me before they are right on top of me.

So, I am very relieved to find a footpath/cycle route off to the right. This is marked as an alternative route to the John o’Groats Trail and, despite the fact it takes me inland, I’m more than happy to get off the A9.

In fact, it’s a lovely, easy path. Fringed with yellow walls of cheerful broom and fragrant gorse. Below me is the A9, and below that – across green fields – is the sea.

The path leads directly onto the end of a road.

Startled, I check my map. No road is marked on the map, just dotted lines indicating a track. But this is actually a surprisingly solid road that leads down to a place called Navidale.

The deviation is a somewhat longer route than I anticipated, but it is such a relief to get off the A9.

After a few twists and turns, I am heading back to the coast again. And, right across the blue sea, I can see the outline of the coast of Aberdeenshire. Aberdeenshire! Now, I really feel I’m beginning to leave the far north of Scotland behind!

This is a lovely quiet road. Apart from a couple of parked vehicles, I meet no cars at all. Just look at that blue sea.

I take a selfie with my Canon. The sun is so bright I am wearing my sunglasses – most unusual for me. And you can just see the busy A9 beneath and behind me.

Sadly, my lovely diversion is coming to an end. There is the A9 roundabout.

But, to my delight, another footpath/cyclepath leads through a patch of woodland, and I can put off joining the main road for a while longer.

When I do, finally, reach the road, there is a pedestrian pavement on the opposite side. Excellent!

The road gradually drops down to Helmsdale. I stop to take photographs of the houses beside the sea. This area of the village is rather odd – modern houses interspersed with older houses and with a suburban feel. I cycled through here earlier, and it seemed a strange place – out of keeping with its location.

“Welcome to Helmsdale” says a sign.

It turns out to be a larger place than I expected – the largest place I’ve come to since Wick.

Here is a hotel – although to be honest it looks more like a hostel.

And a deserted petrol station. Glad I filled the van up in Wick a couple of days ago.

Just before I reach the bridge over the river, I turn off the main road towards the harbour. Nearly there!

The harbour is a busy little place. There are fishing boats in the water, and vans and cars on the quayside – although I’m not sure what they’re all doing.

A boat on the grass is freshly painted and well-cared for, but it doesn’t look as though it is going anywhere. As I get nearer, I can read its name. “Grandpa Pig“.

Of course – Grandpa Pig is Peppa Pig’s grandad and he has a boat!

Just beyond Grandpa Pig’s boat are a couple of other brightly-painted boats. These ones have people (not real people!) on board. Someone has a sense of humour.

A nearby sign is for the Wick Lifeboat: “If you intend staying over please think of donating thank you.”

I feel in my pockets, where I sometimes carry change for the loo, but I have no coins on me. Sadly few people carry cash these days.

The “staying over” part of the plea makes sense as I approach the car park. When I parked my van here this morning, it was empty. But now the little car park is full of motorhomes – and I bet some of these will be “wild camping” here tonight.

In fact, some of the inhabitants are setting up reclining chairs and picnic tables. Settling in.

But I am not camping out in my van tonight. In fact, I’ve rented another little cottage – in Golspie, a little further down the coast. And I’m looking forward to a hot shower and a comfortable night.

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Later, I look up Sutherland and realise it is a huge area that stretches from the west coast of Scotland right across to the east coast. So, yes, I have been in Sutherland before.You can see a map on the Discover the Highlands web site.

I also look up William Welch. It is the name of an American battle ship that sank off Loch Ewe in 1944 – and I have already seen a memorial to this a couple of years ago near Rubha Reidh. But, it can’t be a memorial to that ship because the dates are wrong. Later, I find a reference to another William Welch memorial – a tramp who died in a snowstorm in January 1878 – according to an entry on the Geograph picture site.

Miles walked today = 7 miles

Total around coast = 5,128 miles

Route:

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