by Mike Crowson
* * *
Frank Baxter strolled along the platform at Thurso with his rucksack over one shoulder and his holdall in his hand. He had intended taking the bus to Scrabster for the ferry to Stromness in Orkney, but he was looking at a coach parked outside the station. A large board leaning against it read 'Free bus to John O'Groats for the Short Crossing Orkney Ferry'.
'John O'Groats?' he thought. 'I've heard of that back home. May as well see it on the way, I guess.' and he boarded the bus.
No such thought crossed the mind of Alan Wainwright. He watched the John O'Groats coach leave and caught the service bus to Scrabster.
The train ride from Inverness had been spectacular at times but the scenery here was rather dull and the landscape was, if not entirely flat, then certainly not mountainous. John O'Groats was disappointing. A large car park and a small harbour with a cafe selling souvenirs and claiming to be the 'northernmost house in Scotland', which it didn't seem to be. Frank eyed a house next to the lighthouse which certainly looked further North.
'Maybe I've got my bearings wrong.' he thought charitably. In fact he was giving a lot more thought to the harbour than to the last house in Scotland. 'Any boat small enough to get into that harbour is on the small side for a ferry,' he thought. He was right.