6hrs 5mins in the saddle
Breakfast was not to bad for £2.50 so we helped ourselves to the Continental brekkie and saddled up the bikes by 8.45 - our earliest start yet. Nick was particularly keen to leave as he didn't pay for his bed and breakfast upon arrival at the hostel. You should know he didn't intentionally pull as fast one as the girl at reception made a pigs ear of collecting the money. 4 of us had handed over our money while Nick went to get his wallet from his bags. By the time he returned the girl had marked us off as paid and handed over our keys. With the money Nick saved he got the first round in at the pub so fair play to him!
With no tyres to pump up or any other maintenance to do we got off to a flyer and soon discovered we had broken the £6k fundraising barrier this morning! Incredible.
"Take the south side of Loch Ness. It's much safer" was what we had been advised by several locals, end-2-enders and internet forums. OK, we appreciated the advice and made the decision to take that road. However, nobody mentioned the mountain we had to climb within 30 seconds of leaving the hostel. Not great for cold muscles so it was a very tough start and seemed to go on and on... an on. Not the best way to start a morning.
It turned out to be a 6 mile climb which he churned out in about 50mins with a few water stops thrown in. At 400m it was near enough the same size as the hill on the A6 to Shap and the climb was in half the distance! Once at the summit the views were brilliant. Minutes after our arrival, to our shock, a minibus and two vans appeared and a group of 10 unloaded their bikes and were ready to enjoy the huge downhill ride without deserving the privilege we had just earned!! We spoke to the girl and the group of adults and children were heading for Inverness (read freewheeling to Inverness) on a charity ride for the Archie Foundation for a kids hospital so good on them.
We let them get a good head start before flying down on the drop bars for a good 5 miles of freewheeling at 30mph which was fantastic. Unfortunately it was so enjoyable we didn't notice the wee road at the bottom to take us along the banks of Loch Ness. We only realised 6 miles later at another junction that we were on a parallel road to the Loch-side one and were separated by a big range of hills. I was very annoyed because I was looking forward to cycling the banks of the Loch for a good 20 miles today. Having said that, it was a hugely enjoyable 10 mile section and we eventually joined up with the northern tip of the Loch at Dores. The road that dropped down to the Loch was again great but I sat on the brakes in case there was a car coming in the other direction. I could only imagine how good it would have been with the confidence to let gravity do her work.
The early morning climb had been incredibly hot and sweaty work so Fraz took a dip in the Loch to cool off on another scortching day and ended up doing his best Daniel Craig 007 impression as he emerged from the water in his tight lycra shorts. We had been so lucky with the weather for a solid week of sun! The tans were coming on very nicely including some epic cyclist's tan lines. Nick enjoyed his break at Loch Ness at it was a chance for him to feed the ducks! He only succeeded in whipping them into a frenzy and having a fight with the gannets.
There was also a lot of bare-bum cycling today.
At one point some dare-devil sheep bolted over the road in front of Bruce and Fraz which was hilarious!
On to Inverness and over the Kessock Bridge onto the A9 - another stretch of rapid dual carriageway cycling - until we turned off at Evanton where we climbed over the moors for the rest of the day. With only 15 miles to our destination it was a real slog and took a good couple of hours. Although Andris was feeling better he still had a dodgy stomach so he had a few quick dashes to the woods which included some awkward eye contact from some horses and cattle. From the summit of Struie Hill we had a great view over the Dornoch Firth and to our destination at Bonar Bridge. The downhill from here to Ardgay was an absolute joy supplemented with cries of "Boner!" every time we saw a sign for the village. Boys will be boys.The Kyle House B&B was really nice and we could see why so many cyclists stay there when passing through. He had dinner in the local bar which was real healthy portions which brought an end to day 10 of 12.
It's hard to believe there's only 2 days left.
- I had realised that I had left my fleece in the Hostel at Fort Augustus to add to the socks I left in Welsh-Bicknor
- Andris also lost one sock on the road in Conglesbury as a driver pointed out while we waited at the lights about 2 miles later!
- Nick Forrest has lost a pair of boxer shorts
- Bruce broke both his iPhone and iPod in the rain on day 1
- Grum left his iPhone charger at some point also
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