Cycling Britain: Day 17

Tongue → Bettyhill → Dounreay → Thurso

After a cracking breakfast I headed East, towards Thurso and its rail link back home to Inverness. Due to the change in direction I was now cutting across the hills and valleys. Today was made up of and endless cycle of toiling up a hill for half an hour followed by a terrifying brake-screeching two minutes on the way down. Rinse. Repeat.

Good morning, Madame.

This 'shepard' was herding his flock down the road using using his car. Meanwhile his dog walked behind the car, darting out whenever needed to guide straying sheep back into the main group. A surprisingly effective machine-animal duo.

Dounreay was Britain's largest nuclear power station. I dropped in to find out why this huge facility was being disassembled at a time when Britain is already short on electricity. It seems that Dounray's public relations department was vastly outclassed by the media skills of those activists who opposed it. After years and years of unrelenting bad press, parliament was forced to destroy the plant. Scary.

Ooh, play-thing...

One of the staff watching me said "You've obviously used one of these before." Heh, true enough. Except mine were home-made and not nearly as smooth.

Close-up of the control cables at a joint.

And at long last, Thurso. The official end of this trip. Total time, 17 days (only one day longer than originally planned). Total distance, just over 1000km.

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