Wednesday 10 October 2007

并且末端现在是近 as sang Sinatra

LOCH NESS to BETTYSHILL



Today was a suck it and see day. I had planned in the planning to finish without planning exactly when I planned to finish.!!!!!!!!!! If your still with me then read on. Last night my back up crew went on the town, well on the village and they woke up the campsite on the way home ( apart from me) I never heard a thing and slept soundly all night in my campervan.





Left them to strike camp and after kissing Gareth Alun goodbye( he was going home ) I set off through the village of Drumnadrochty heading North up the A833. I was very sore and found it quite difficult to get going. The A 833 was like cycling up the Aswan Dam and I was glad to stop halfway up to do a radio interview with Dafydd Du ( Black Dafydd)Nothing racial here he's white and from Llanberis!!!!!!!!







I continued North through Dingwall and on to the A9 where Aled caught me up with the camper van and we had a cup of tea and a cake. Robin and Alwyn were somewhere north of Inverness having got hoplessley lost!!!






Due to the traffic on the A9 a decision was made to go North on the B9176 towards Bonar Bridge.






This was a quiet country road without a soul to be seen. Good cycling, Big hills beautiful views and a sore ass. Well it was a donkey actually but what the hell.












BONAR BRIDGE





Here we stopped for a spot of lunch!! We were passed by an LE Jones lorry and we waved and waved but he must have been a Polish driver !!!
From the village we could see two men cutting grass on the river banks opposite. One was flat out strimming for all he was worth. 100 yards downstream hi mate was literaly flat out.. lying on the bank sunbathing and having a fag(This has no sexual inuenndo i.e fag as in cigarette)




Following a very tasty ham roll and listening in on a woman ( mobile phone) who was giving her husband his household chores list for the next 20 years. I think she must have been reserve fog horn on Ramsay Island Lighthouse in a previous career. 2 more decibels and eardefenders would have been a health and safety requirement.





I still wake up at night in a cold sweat thinking of her poor husband.





Robin Penlan and Alwyn had turned up by now each accusing the other of navigational errors.





As is the motto of the Bala backside scratchers club it was now " Onwards and Upwards" along the A836.





This was a single track road and the traffic was light to say the least





This was real Bonnie Prince Charlie country but I couldnt imagine being very bonny with all the midges and flies around. Now were talking midges the size of golf balls and they seem to like damp dark places!!! no comments please!!



We were now talking" dont get stuck here on your own in the dark" country. The remoteness of the place was breathtaking. Or it could be the steep hills!! The only dwelling I saw for miles and miles was Crask Inn and I didnt even stop for a packet of nuts! 1 house 1 pub I made a PLEDGE TO RETURN HERE SOON !!20,000,000,000,000,000 midges per square inch.From here it was fairly downhill all the way to my next decision making spot Altnaharra.500 yards as the crow flies ( yes even the crows have flies here) from the Altnaharra hotel I had my first puncture. Rear wheel... Aaaagh.

MY back up crew were now split up. 2 having gone on ahead to find a campsite, the motorhome at Altnaharra and me round the corner with a puncture. (No wonder the English defeated us at the battle of Cwm gwaun y badger in 1606).

Puncture repaired and onwards.

I was now tired sore and hungry otherwise everything was A1. The message came from the scouting crew that the A836 to Tongue was all uphill and that I should turn right at Altnaharra up the B873. Or turn Left on to the moors and get lost!!!

So off I went along the banks of the bonny Loch Naver............................. The milage for the day was now approaching 100+ and it was getting dark




Now comes the ""Fun"" part. The back up management crew had decided that we could not stop on the B871 in the middle of nowhere so they were going to "persuade me to continue for another 20 miles or so to the nearest campsite. In order to keep me going Robin Penlan was persuaded to join me on the spare bike for the last push. He did look quite athletic in my spare cycling shorts and pink jersey. I didnt mention it to him that I had worn that particular pair of shorts for a week!!!!!
We cycled off into the gloom towards the Scottish North Coast.
Robin is obviously a natural cyclist and he pushed the pace up to around 18 mph ( downhill)
The midges and flies were awesome and I must have swallowed thousands of them. I kept thinking there must be a way to compress midges to form midge swizzlers or burgers or even midge sausages.
We cycled on through the dark and It was only the company of Robin that kept me going( Its a man bravado thing they say !!!!)He was like a demon on two wheels.We kept going on and on untill we got to Bettyhill. The hill into the town was extremly steep and this served to prompt a near coronary for my travelling companion. I had visions of changing the name of the village to Robinshill in memorium. We camped that night with the sound of the crashing waves of the North Sea and the zzzzzz of midges in our ears. During the night it blew a gale and we almost lost the tent and two of the back up crew into the sea. I spent most of the night awake thinking of tommorrow and the last 50 miles. I didnt really want this to end although I was very sore and aching all over.The back up crew spent the night imitating paragluiders trying to hold down the tent in the gales!! I lay in bed sniggering

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