DAY 7: 25th June 2010

OK, before I begin, there are some edited highlights of last night's post-blog activities which need to be reported...

Firstly, it has been established, as absolute fact, that you are never more than 50 yards from one of Barry's ex's.

Secondly, it's not the World's best idea to ring your girlfriend at ten past eleven, then pass the phone around in a clock fashion, asking random people to speak to her, Barry.

Thirdly, "ooh Barry, please stop, it hurts" is unlikely to make someone stop making you laugh.

So anyway, on with Friday. The quiet morning was shattered by the sound of Chris' tractor driving over a traffic cone in the camp site, but thankfully this was after our little lie-in as we were setting off at 0800 ish. Our first stop, as ever, was Morrisons for our last breakfast. Nothing special or unusual here (thankfully) and after a quick fuel stop we were on our way north on the A9.

Soon, Tony decided that the land we could occasionally see to our right was Northern Europe, and in fact was Canada, because that's easily visible from the East coast of Scotland...

And so we rolled along with the usual overtaking nutters, and Tinker trying to do Nessie's trick of steering towards the Glenmorangie distillery, with Stacy reporting she had a Renault up her bottom.

We decided to carry on up the road without stopping at the posh loos at Golspie, pressing on instead through some light (and not so light) drizzle for the other usual loo stop at Lybster. Jay's Hill at Berriedale was no match for any of the cars (including Chris' tractor (BIG SMILEY)) but one car did have trouble staying on the right side of the road at the roadworks on the top corner...

And so, bimbling along shouting at cows, finding rabbit-sheep and staring at necking horses, we reached Lybster for a much needed loo stop. Leaving the rather cosy loos, we found the students (having sorted out their ignition issues following a vist from Rich's parents) were trying to top up their clutch system. The slave cylinder had decided to leak in a fairly spectacular fashion, but they felt it would be OK if we could all get down to the harbour.

And so, after having pushed the car into position, it was out with my spares and tools, passing over the spare cylinder I'd brought with me (sale or return is rather cool) and letting them get on with it.

Half an hour, a bit of cake, a cup of coffee and a paddle in the sea later, and the cylinder was swapped, but some serious adjustment was needed before the first attempt at the hill could be made. More adjustment was needed after that, once the car had rolled back down the hill...

Eventually we were back on our way to John O'Groats, with some more drizzle and lots of waving at cyclists doing the same trip as we were. It was an easy run in to the roundabout, and almost before we'd got out of Dennis there were people getting their pictures taken - including Bug in the CHSW teddy costume...

A wander around the shops looking for miscellaneous tat, and then some rolling repairs to the horn and headlight flasher connections, and we were ready to head back to the camp site again.

The run back was largely uneventful, which was good, as we were all rather tired. We stopped at Golspie this time, in the posh loos with the gaps at the tops of the walls. There were words of advice for the ladies ("stamp your feet", "shake the lettuce" etc) and after a little confusion to get out of the car park and back on the main road we were back on the way. A slight issue developed coming to the end of the dual carriageway which was resolved quickly - the Golden Girls had lost sight of us as we approached the roundabout, and with their inability to communicate (no CB), Michelle ended up going right round the roundabout to make sure that they could join the convoy again.

Now we were back into Inverness, the convoy split into two, with some going straight back to the camp site and others heading to Morrisons for evening food and for petrol. Early starts mean that filling up isn't that easy, or is an unwelcome distraction from just getting home.

Managing to get the Golden Girls half way to the camp site before they lost us at lights, me and Tony sorted out as much of Dennis as we could so we could leave as quickly as possible. The usual last night of LEJOG antics ensued: Bug back in the bear costume dancing to MC Hammer's Can't Touch This; Tony getting his head in the bear's head at the same time as Bug and ending up with music himself; the discovery for some people that when your hands are cold, putting them under someone else's armpits warms them up very well indeed; the signing of the bear's t-shirt; Terry's recycled speech (BIG SMILEY) and discussions of how the run had gone.

And so after a few more beers (some more than others) and a quick read through the blog, it waS time to settle down ready for tomorrow's early start...