This morning we had to go the Thurso for supplies and on the way passed the Skerray bus stop (which I presume is now defunct) and has been converted into a greenhouse.

Nearer to Thurso We passed Dounreay nuclear power station and I recalled lorries of nuclear waste trundling down the A9 through Dunblane at night heading for reprocessing further south. It appears to be in the process of being closed which will decimate local employment opportunities despite being good for the environment. In Thurso we headed for the first bakery/cafe we saw to top up the caffeine levels and I overheard a conversation between a wiry 60-something cyclist from Northern England and the woman behind the counter. He was trying to offload all his small change but she reminded him that he might like it to weigh him down when battling the wind on his way to Tongue. I could not resist asking him if he had cycled all the way up here but no, he had taken the train to Elgin to stay with a relative and having been to John O’Groats was now heading for Durness and the west coast. I bid him good luck as he would be battling a strong headwind. Indeed we passed him later on as we drove up the hill out of Thurso.

I was very happy to discover that Thurso has a secondhand bookshop and found a first edition of a volume of the New Naturalist series that I collect. After that we left town and headed back along the coast wondering about walking out to the old lighthouse on Strathy Point. Having got as far as the car park the very high winds made it not safe to walk any further out to the end of the point and the lighthouse (only the third time I have abandoned a walk due to wind). Instead we had lunch back at the cottage and a walk on the more sheltered Torrisdale Bay.