To manage our excitement on day 1, nature has managed the weather accordingly. According to AI, “British people have 188 words and phrases for rain, with regional dialects and Scots containing the highest variety.” Today’s Scottish variation is grey and drizzly, or as the Scots themselves would say, more pithily, a day of alternating smirr and dreich (pronounced dreech, ch sound as in loch).

This part of Scotland is a) remote and b) made principally of granite. This means that you really have to want to live here, but even the plants find it hard to get a foothold. Anything that does live, needs to have a cunning plan to avoid being eaten, dehydrated or blown away. Hence the evolution here of a lot of shrubbery (said in high pitched voice, emphasis on errrryyyyy, Monty Python style).

We did also, unsurprisingly see a lot of sheep, celebrating their diversity, but also practicing the “lie lower than shrubbery” tactic for survival.

I’m pretty sure some people have just reached a point where they’ve said, “sod it, let’s just leave and go somewhere less hostile.”

Even bits of Scotland are trying to break away from Scotland.

Apart from beautiful remote outcrops with deserted castles and bothys, we’ve spent most of the day with Mark reassuring me that at the top of the ridge we have been slowly plodding up, we will be able to look down on our destination: Wick. As it turned out, most of what we have seen from the ridgetops has been the top of the next ridge. As we are walking single file to dodge the cars on the main A roads, most of what I have seen is the back of Mark.

Mark’s reassuring prediction only came true once.

So now we are in Wick, bemoaning the lack of deep fried Mars Bars at the local fish and chippy; seemingly the only restaurant either open on a Tuesday or with a Google review score above 3.x in Wick. I’m pretty sure we’ll get to try them at some point and will report back in full. Good job the apartment we are staying in recognises the situation we are in and has essential supplies.

Tomorrow we walk through Blackness and you think I’m kidding. Til then…..