So we had basically stayed in the automated premier inn of the north. Keycards grabbed from the pub at the other end of the car park. Luckily they let us lock up the bikes in the laundry room (quite a worry navigating dirty bikes around piles of white linen). Anyway, breakfast started with a cloying Lidl mayonnaise (with a hint of pasta) meal. Fun start to the day, which was always planned as the longest. Brain was elsewhere when we got on the road (took a wrong turning on the 2nd roundabout), but eventually got into the groove. The legs were noticeably taking more miles to warm up than at the start of the trip.

Ended up spending a lot of time on the route 7 cycle ways. Crazy how it varied between a dirt path, packed small stones, tarmac and concrete. We had to bail on it a few times since the busy road was a better choice when it was a mud bath. However, annoyingly the main road was pretty rough in places, pretty hilly corners and lots of holiday traffic/lorries. A bit annoying having to choose between slow, quiet progress on the cycle path or faster, busy progress on the road.

Despite the constant flip-flopping, the first half of the distance went by fast although a little soul destroying in places. However, bad luck struck again around the 60mile point. James had his 3rd puncture. Depressingly we were under plant/tree cover so was extremely humid and became a banquet for a swarm of peckish midges. With the mood thoroughly low, we got back on the move before shortly pulling into a hotel restaurant for some lunch. I wont deny that the thought of calling it a day and staying at the hotel was extremely tempting. On later reflection it was a good thing I kept quiet on the subject since James would have readily buckled to stopping as well.

Second half of the ride started off better. Ended up having 3 long climbs followed by fun descents. The body was pretty destroyed after the cumulative climbs but it felt good to conquer each one in turn. Unfortunately it was a day that felt like it would never end. We rolled into the youth hostel at the latest time on our whole trip (doubly depressing after starting so early). Thankfully the chef was a legend. They had stopped serving but he sorted out some grub for us. Best comment from him: “I won’t tell you about the salads. it’s all rabbit food and you guys won’t want that anyway”. Legend!

Failure stats time:

  • garmin crashes: 1

Arty macro flower shot

Early sunshine, mountains and loch

Another Bike against the great scenery

More loch's and turning gloomy

James's "happy" face in Taymouth

Taymouth Castle... apparently

This cycle route never ends!!

Castle ruins near the end