UPDATE UPDATE Nearly There.. last but one
Trip Start
May 22, 2011
1
12
13
Trip End
Jun 02, 2011
Tain, Scotland, United Kingdom
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
8 of us were jammed into a dorm at the Fort William backpackers house on Tues night… after another great feed down at the local alehouse, it was another night of less than 6hrs sleep after listening to the tunes of 8men grumbling, snoring, grunting and every other sound middle age men make whilst sleeping. It was tough getting going in the morning, looking out the window at the rain pouring, bouncing off the pavement. Ben Nevis couldn't be seen any more with the cloud cover but we all wrapped up with every device for keeping dry on the ride…
In spite of the rain, Mark Boyes joined us for a ride, our plan for the day was to follow the A82 towards Inverness hugging the Lochs and the Caledonian canal.. 15mins into the ride I couldn’t feel my hands with the wet and cold, 30mins and my feet had gone too. To make the ride a little more interesting we left the main road to take the cycle paths thro the forest… it was fun and we were still making good pace. ~10miles in we discovered we couldn’t get though on one of the tracks without the aid of a mountain bike just past Clunes. The only thing to do, was turn around and go back, this added 10miles to our day.
After Loch Lochy we were alongside the famous Lock Ness… at one point I thought I saw a head pop out of the window (sorry not true, couldn’t resist), the water was deep and rough, the waves were breaking with white crests as we went by. As we couldn’t get any wetter at this point we were able make some great progress along mostly flatish and smoothish roads.. John Ellis at this point had a tire and inner tube problem, so he waited for backup only to catch us up and pass us after lunch. Oddly, as we approached Drumnadrochit, the blue sky appeared and as we parked up we were in bright sunshine. Perfect to help dry the clothes and bones before we set off for the afternoon leg.
We went through Inverness after lunch, weaving through the streets until we left on the Kessock Suspension Bridge.. rain, and wind re appearing at this point. The pace picked up in the afternoon as 40km were done in an hour and quarter as we followed the Firth.. the town names looked familiar as distilleries such as Invergordon and Glen Morangie.
As we flew into Tain, we passed Easter Logie.. time for a curry
Highlight of the day was seeing Nessie and the sign for John O'Groats :-)
Comments
I am hooked you are going to have to cycle back to Lands End - I read your blog every day what am I going to do without it!
You are all do amazing - you will do it all of you :-)
We all thank you for doing this
Enjoy Enjoy Enjoy
I heard from John Long at 15.00 on 2nd June today that you were just about to start your last 16 miles to the finish line.
Amazing job, I am in complete awe of what you have all achieved and I know the charities you are working for will be so grateful for all money you have raised in doing this ride.
You all deserve a great big hug and a drink or seven after this lot. Well done, each and every one of you.
well you can really say " no mean feat my man" congratulations and well done I presume that you are now there !, and that you are all celebrating, so have fun enjoy your success, oh and get the train back !!!! regards paul
Well done Les, onward to the tour de france now. I dont think iron bru is tested for as a drug. Mighty stuff boy.
well done Les. when does the Alps tour begin?