JOGLE 5 Day 4 Sat 12 May 12

Started  0900. Finished 1615. 15 miles.  Dunbeath to Helmsdale.  A very uneventful walk. We saw loads of cyclists, a runner and motorcyclists heading south and north all on the JOGLE-LEJOG mission.  On reaching the first village Ian stopped for water replenishment at the local post office that wasn’t open.  However the proprietor kindly filled Ian’s bottle from her kitchen tap that is not connected to the mains but runs straight from the river nearby. In the meantime I had a chat with a runner heading south, whom having retired  was running JOGLE.  His wife apparently drove the camper van during the day and they met up in the evenings.  We had lunch at a historical Clearance Village reached by following a small path to the edge of the cliffs.  There is a memorial there and some history boards explaining what the clearances were all about, no wonder the Scots hate the English so much when you consider the way the land owners treated them.   On arrival in Helmsdale we found the Belgrade Hotel easily enough but the Belgrade hotel was not so good, the reception on arrival was poor, the service not particularly good and the shower was rubbish, this reinforces our point that Hotels don't understand walkers.  We put our freshly rinsed out socks on the only hot radiator in the place (which was halfway up the stairs) this soon promoted a quick reaction to the use of a tumble dryer despite asking earlier and being told that we don't do laundry. When it came to Kicking out time it was really noisy at 0030 hrs causing Ian to go down and have words with the noise makers which worked as they all cleared off – noisily!  However the Landlord and Landlady didn’t seem to think it was a problem. Getting a packed lunch out of them wasn’t that easy and breakfast was a rather solitary affair – what no guests? No surprises there then! In the evening we ate in a really nice restaurant further along the road, it was very pleasant and offered very good service and very nice food.  Helmsdale itself is nice enough place with old fashioned shops, you feel as though you’re walking through somebody’s front door and all the shops have wooden floor boards and wall to wall goods with every space utilised to the full. Helmsdale also has a railway station and a port, very useful if you are fed up with walking!  What is noticeable about this part of Scotland is that very few of the people we met that run businesses are actually Scottish.