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*Just spent an hour writing the summary of the last day and somehow my iPhone crashed and never saved a copy. So I’ll start again with even more enthusiasm as my first draft! I’m writing this in the middle of my 7 hour train journey back to Glasgow so plenty of time to reflect on the day and write it all up. I hope you are cosy and have time to read this post!

So, staying in the castle was certainly an experience. Everything was perfect apart from “señor snore” from Spain who’s snoring was so loud it took me till about 2am to get some sleep. As well as the drunken lads that rolled in at 1am, my 8am start was a slightly shaky one after only 5 hours sleep. This was however going to be my day where I cycle the last 100 odd miles and complete the challenge!

After warming the legs up on the first mile cycle, realising my left tendon was in agony at this point and my left knee was pretty sore as well, I quickly topped up the food rations in Lairg then on to the strangely quiet flat plains of the A836 to Altnaharra. This was a tough one, as it was 23 miles mostly uphill against a strong headwind, so this took a 2 hour chunk of time out of my day. It was worth it though, as I was then greeted by the beautiful fresh new tarmac roads of Betty Hill. Oh yeah, they have a huge beach, icy blue waters and and the clouds just withered away giving me a lovely blue sky to cycle under for the remainder of the day. I stopped here for a wee lunch break where the village was having their own wee gala and I got some good chat going with some old drunken Glaswegian men! Great for the spirit!

A few very tough and surprise climbs later, I was on my way to Dounreay where a cyclist appeared out of nowhere in “wan ae they fancy carbon fibre bikes”. This was Glyn, who had the most strange Welsh/Geordie/Devon type accent, and when I asked the obligatory question, he replied with “aayerre aaaaa ahm go-win to John O’Groats as wheel!” The lucky chap had no luggage as he was in the fortunate position of having his wife providing a support vehicle full of spare wheels, pies and taking care of accommodation. We met on the last 40 miles of the trip and it was great to have a buddy to work with so that we could speed our way to the finish line.

After a quick wee break in Thurso, where I munched the remains of the fine Scottish tablet provided by Joy of Tanuilt, we sped on, 30, 25, 20, 15 miles left. The excitement and adrenalin was pumping through me, but there is always space for a caffeine/carb energy gel. I felt like a rocket, with the two of us keeping the speed around 25 mph on a flat to the final line and I kept thinking of Mark Cavendish and his sprint finishes in the Tour de France I raced ahead of Glyn and the last 3 miles felt like they only lasted a few minutes and reached the split road that takes you to John O’Groats then suddenly a few more split roads?!?!?! Lands End has a simple single road with a start/finish line. I couldn’t find one here! At the very end of the pier I saw a group of 8 cyclists clearly celebrating their completion (they came via Wick hence why I never saw them earlier) so I went up there and just before the edge is a nice spray painted “stop”! 104 miles in the day, top speed of 38mph and overall distance of 999.2 miles! What a great feeling! Glyn and his wife had kindly offered to give me a lift to Wick, saving me a 17 cycle back to my hotel. So, after literally 5 minutes, glyn packed up his bike, mine as well and then we were on our way to Wick where after a speedy 20 minute drive I was dropped off at the hotel on my own. Had a cheap Indian take away then passed out with a smile knowing that I’ll never look at the map of the uk in the same way again! :)

I’ve really enjoyed keeping this blog diary over the last few months, and I’ll be writing on this again over the next few days, and I’ll add some pages with photos as well. Feel free to subscribe to my RSS feeds.

Finally, thank you once again to everyone who has made this an incredible journey, the advice I received, incredible hospitality from old and new friends and for all the donations so that MAP can continue their great work in the occupied territories.

What’s next? Well, I’m cycling from Pisa to Rome with these guys. to raise money for The Welfare Association. Next year? Who knows what I’ll do? Glasgow to Edinburgh? London to Doha? Watch this space.