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Day 79 Brora to Helmsdale (a day ending with Lejoggers and Joglers)

 


We all started from Brora on another sunny day, where we quickly joined the John o'Groats Trail from the town near the harbour, at the south end of the beach and golf course.





The tide was going out and as it was so flat, there was plenty of wet sand to walk on, initially. 

  



After 2.5 miles, Garry walked onto the official path off the beach, where a few distressed terns dive bombed him, one even dropped a bit of crab's claw on him. He quickly made his way back onto the beach. The going got quite tough and the beach got quite rocky, so he alternated between the beach and the dunes.

This continued for a chunk of the walk. Garry passed a campsite and was very close to the railway line for a while.

         

He took his shoes and socks off to cross the Loth Burn, which was shin deep and really cold. His socks felt lovely and warm to put back on!

He rounded a small headland across a naturist beach, no naturists to be seen today. Garry wasn't sure of the dress code but carried on through anyway.

He continued, alternating dunes and beaches until he reached Portgower, a small hamlet. 

After this, there a was a 50 metre whizz up the A9 followed by a quiet track up and down and then onto a quiet lane where he met me and Alfie. 

On my way from Helmsdale to meet Garry, I saw a hiker walking towards me. Initially I thought it was Garry and soon realised it wasn't. I found out it was Niall McCormack, from New Zealand, who is also walking from Land's End to John o'Groats and had been 10 minutes ahead of Garry most the day! The two of them compared stories on the way down into Helmsdale and we may be featured on Niall's you tube  channel later on day 52 today.  https://www.youtube.com/@niallmccormack-teararoa

As we all reached the bottom of the hill, there was a campervan and we met Keegan Woodall, @halfpintrunner. Keegan is attempting to run from John o'Groats to Land's End, running the equivalent of a marathon each day in aid of Devon Mind. fundraise.devonmind.com/jogle2025 Keegan was coming to the end of Day 2 running. 



We continued into Helmsdale, looking down onto the old harbour.



Nearly 13 miles walked for Garry today and nearly 7 miles for me.

Tomorrow's route takes us further north up the coast , towards Berriedale. 





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