by pearltricia » Wed Aug 05, 2020 6:39 pm
Date walked: 05/08/2020
Time taken: 10 days
Distance: 165 km
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starting on 21st July with some rest days we walked the Southern 10 stages of the John o Groats trail. Every stage was well signposted and the route well supported by a Harveys Map and downloads of GPX waypoints. South of Brora the route is straightforward and easy to follow with no problems. A few parts a bit over grown but nothing to make the walk difficult. The Walk between Brora and Helmsdale is mainly on the beach - every effort should be made to use the sand at low tide to avoid the pebble beach or grass behind and you should not stay on the beach going into Helmsdale because the pebble /boulder beach is very slow going. The upper signposted route is much better.It was very rough walking above the beach because the grass was deep and tussocky and included bracken in places and you need to cut through to walk along. The route has not been used during lockdown and this has resulted in vegetation including gorse taking over. North of Helmsdale the big cliffs start and the path is usually outside the fields on the cliffs side. Inside the fields, progress cannot be made because of walls, fences without stiles and sometimes livestock. So in summer 20202 you have a gorgeous cliff top walk but huge amounts of vegetation and concerns about where to place your feet with cliffs below.
We hooked up with the Friends of John o Groats trail and they joined us /we jointed them for 3 days walking from Helmsdale to Lybster. This was a great experience but hard work with lots of slashing of vegetation but slow going and tough. The work has now opened the trail up as far as Lybster and we cannot comment on further North as we did not walk that section. The trail North of Helmsdale desperately needs walking and using to keep it open against the bracken etc. Its a really spectacular trail - fantastic coastal scenery with cliffs, geos, waterfalls stacks and lovely hidden beaches and harbours, plus brochs, historical sites and castles. Lots of down and up rewarded by views of birds, whales, wild flowers and butterflies ; things that you totally miss flashing by on the A9 only half a mile away. The friends of the trail have worked on the project for 4 years now and have built stiles, bridges, steps and put up loads of way markers. trail has suffered with being unused during lockdown but really needs to be used now. We can only guess that in a 'normal' year the vegetation we encountered would have been cleared and trampled by footfall but in 2020 you must be prepared for difficult stretches.
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