Log No 50. Mon 27th May 2013 - Helmsdale to Lybster, 23 miles (860 miles walked)

Lawrence took us back to Helmsdale for 09.00, the forecast was for a cloudy day with some rain at the start and finish of the walk.

The early rain had passed through but the grass was wet on the path out along the bottom of the slopes.

There were very few paths shown on the map and the coastline was all cliffs and steep slopes.

We were forced to climb up the slope after only half an hour and make our way back onto the A9.

Looking at the terrain ahead we decided to stay on the road until the car park for Badbea.

This site has the remains of houses from the small village established during the clearences when people were forced from their houses and had to make a living as best they could from the coast.

From Badbea we stayed along the top of the slopes and picked up a grassy track which we left after a short while when it turned to get back to the road.

We climbed over a high stone dyke to get into a sheep field and were able to follow the top of the slopes and then make a steep descent into Berriedale.

It had taken us 4 hours to get here.

We crossed the river using the very springy suspension footbridge and climbed up onto the A9 at the hairpin bend.

Once again the decision was made to stay on the road to Dunbeath.

One option had been to stop at the campsite here but it was a bit early to end the day at 15.30 so we carried on to find a wild camp further up the coast.

Our only concern was that the wind had picked up and was blowing strongly from the south-east, this meant we would be very lucky to find a sheltered site.

Another option was to see if we could get a bus to Wick and use the campsite there as a base for two nights, that would also give us a pack free day tomorrow.

Obviously we opted for Wick.

Having done very little coastal edge walking I wanted to at least attempt a bit more today. Following the edge and climbing over all the obstacles does take considerably longer though.

We went down the road to Dunbeath Harbour then climbed up onto the cliff top.

The first two fields had inquisitive cows in but we were able to walk on the cliff side of the fence.

As usual some sheep had also made their way onto this side and kept running just ahead of us.

We had to turn inland a bit to detour round a gorge and stream and the stupid sheep found themselves trapped in a bottleneck of fencing. Not wanting to have to come by us they started forcing their way through the wire and jumping down the side of the cliff. Mick was most concerned but I had seen this too often to be worried for their safety.

The Tearoom at the Laidh.. Croft museum was just ahead of us so went in for a break and to find out about buses, it had taken us an hour to cover lesscthan 2 miles.

Lybster was 6 miles up the road and the next bus from there was at 19.07, it was now 16.50 so we had plenty of time to walk up the road and catch it.

It was half past eight by the time we had the tent up so writing up today's log was postponed until the morning.

23 miles in 10 hours today, much slower going than normal.