Day 99: Whaligoe Steps to Wick Harbour (12 miles)

A very different day today. The forecast had been pretty good but the previous night changed to mist and fog in the morning. In the end it was that all day. This was a shame as the coastal cliffs were dramatic with lots of sea stacks, arches and blowholes along the whole stretch.

What made it, was having Georgie and Maria walking with me, with great exuberance and hilarity. Knowing that I was coming to the end of being apart from my wonderful, beautiful and supportive family has made me feel immense relief and satisfaction.

We had aimed to leave the Harbour House at 10, to give everyone  chance to recover from the long drive. As it happened, Martin turned off all his alarms by mistake so we ended up over-sleeping until 8:30. Maybe that was a good thing, as we have been going to bed late because of the light evenings. It doesn’t really get dark up here until gone 11pm and getting light again at 3:30am. And today was the solstice.

However, everyone was efficient in getting ready and breakfasted, apart from Jordan who had a lie-in and would do his own thing during the day, and we were waiting in the hall for Martin to appear. And waited. And waited.  I then twigged that he wasn’t actually in the house. As is his want, he had wandered off (again!) to chat to someone down in the harbour, who had had trouble with his boat and had to be rescued, and then got distracted sorting the car. We then waited while he sorted himself out!!! 

In reality, we arrived back at the Steps at 10:30 and I rather hoped this would mean the fog would clear for us before the end of the walk. Ah well, you can always hope!

Martin set out with us, and was going to see if he could link up with Jordan later on. We hadn’t gone too far before we came to a seabird colony at Head of Row - here it was comprised of fulmars, guillemots, and razorbills. But then to everyone’s delight ….. and particularly Maria’s who says it’s the only bird she’s interested in - we saw a puffin.  Big accomplishment achieved! Martin promptly decided to turn back.

A bridge crossed above a waterfall at Ellen’s Geo, a marked slit in the cliffs. I was delighted that the fulmars were flying close up to us, an experience I loved sharing with the girls.

We were then surprised by the Stack of Ulbster, a large blowhole with sea arch just behind. All manner of cliff forms followed but it was difficult to see much in the thickening mist.

We had to be careful not to get disorientated in the mist finding ourselves heading inland at one point as a signpost had pointed the wrong way. But as the time rolled on past 13:00 we started looking for somewhere out of the wind and fortuitously arrived at one of the highlights of the walk at Ashy Geo and a view of the Needle’s Eye, apparently one of the most spectacular sea arches in Britain and certainly the highest I have seen.

 It took a while for the calories to make their way down to my legs - I was feeling tired but 15 minutes on I was fine, although both Georgie and I had chilled and our hands were turning white …. I’m afraid I’ve passed Raynard’s Syndrome to all 3 daughters …. sorry about that, girls!  We shared my gloves until our blood was circulating efficiently again into our fingers.

At the Haven, the seabird colony was dominated by kittiwakes - I could now recognise their distinctive and very noisy calls and shrieks and identify with their name “kitti…..wake”. Suddenly I saw a large brown bird with white flashes on its wings - a great skua. Sure enough they are notorious along this coast for stealing seabird eggs - a huge bird compared to those around us, and certainly with an ominous air.

More stacks and another blowhole, this time much smaller, within the grassy peninsula and therefore fenced. Especially in fog that’s not something you would want to fall down.

We paused at Girston Geo for a chocolate fix, again watching fulmars and kittiwakes flying in close, before moving on.

Shortly after we spotted Martin and Jordan rounding the corner full of excitement. They had been to Harbour Day at Wick and wanted to tell us all about it, but said they had a surprise waiting for us. All three of us were sceptical, and wondered if they were simply winding us up. Jordan led us to a viewpoint but told us not to look around until we were in place. We turned around to see Martin standing on a high suspended rock slab jutting out with a tall thin stack behind. Breath-taking. We each took a turn standing there, and looking at the sea arch which we had been on - the Stack of Brough - a large stack with a sea cave tunnelled through it to create a sea arch. This undoubtedly was the highlight of the walk and we were glad the mist had lifted a bit to see it, whilst still around to create a mysterious atmosphere. 

We continued on to the Castle of Wick with its impressive strategic position before Jordan and Martin jumped in the car, and we continued along a track and then tarmac-d road into Wick Harbour. A bagpipe band was playing and lots of boats were on display as well as the police, fire brigade and RNLI who were on a recruitment drive.

A cafe we had hoped would be open was not, as we arrived shortly after 16:00, but the girls fell on the opportunity passing a fish and chip shop to try a battered mars bar. This was a great success and discussing how to make them at home, we sat at a bench by my car and phoned Martin to tell him to meet us there. Sounding a bit guilty, we discovered they were whisky tasting and rather sheepishly arrived a few minutes later, so we could drive in convoy to pick up supplies from Tesco’s on our way back to Keiss and the Harbour house.

Another day’s walk done and according to the guidebook 11+13 miles to go. A soak in the bath was very welcome!