Julie and I will be hiking from John O’Groats to Land’s End in the UK during the northern summer of 2022. The journey of nearly 2,000 kilometres will take about two and a half months, a week or two longer than when I hiked the other direction in 2010. We will stay in B&B’s, hostels and pubs, so will not be carrying camping gear, though we will each have an emergency bivvy sack just in case we can’t find somewhere to stay.

John O'Groats to Land's End - Day 006 - Tain to Alness

Day: 006

Date: Monday, 06 June 2022

Start:  Tain

Finish:  Alness

Daily Kilometres:  21

GPX Track:  Click here for Julie’s Strava & Photos

Total Kilometres:  200

Weather:  Cold and overcast until mid-afternnon when some sun appeared and it warmed up a tad.

Accommodation:  Guest House

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Toast & peanut butter

  Lunch:  Egg mayonnaise rolls

  Dinner:  Mexican pizza

Aches:  Dave - feet still very painful.  Julie - cruisin’

Highlight:  None really.  Maybe a shorter day and earlier finish than usual, which was welcome.

Lowlight:  Only Dave’s feet!

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

Knowing we had a shorter day, we rose later and had a leisurely breakfast before walking up to the Tain village centre and buying supplies for the day.  It was 9:00am before we set out on the sealed country lane which we followed south-west all day to Alness, 21km away.


It was a day marked by lovely rural scenery, occasional pine forest, abundant wildflowers, and some very nice homes and farms.  On the right there was a backdrop of low mountains covered in yellow-flowered gorse and heath, while to the left we had glimpses of Cromarty Firth with a number of moored oil-drilling rigs.


We reached our guesthouse in the village of Alness at 3:00pm, a welcome early finish, and checked in.  


Dave’s feet continued to be very sore all day, with some new blisters, so we decided to make the 35-minute bus trip into an outdoor store in Inverness to buy some hiking boots to replace the New Balance running shoes he had been wearing.  The New Balance had been trialled on a 100km hike (the Great Ocean Walk) in Victoria before we left and seemed OK, but maybe the extra pack weight changed the foot dynamics.


The trip went to plan and he now has some new Lowa boots, a brand he has used for multiple long hikes, and we hope the feet will enjoy the change, though it’s not likely to be instantaneous.  We have 35km to walk to Inverness tomorrow, which Dave was dreading throughout today, so any improvement will be welcome.
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