Stats for the day (approx, actual to come): Miles: 75ish, Ft Climbed: 3500 Calories: 6500ish Group Punctures: 1, Beard Status: I hope it’s not blocking the sun. Undercarriage: Good to Fair.
Hello Slog Blogettes! (Which, dear reader, I’ve decided is your new name) So, I’ve actually written this one once already today but after a flat battery and blogger failing to back up I’m sat typing out round 2…
After yesterday’s Travel Lodge we’ve stepped up in the world today; a lovely old hotel, right alongside a Loch and some pretty impressive mountains..sadly said mountains are also our route out of here but more of that later.
Today really was a classic run of ups and downs. After another Tesco breakfast, (no square sausage action I’m afraid.) we had a gentle run out of Inverness and turned towards Loch Ness. Nessy really did not disappoint, a truly stunning place, especially with the sunny weather we were blessed with all day. (Pics will be up tomorrow again once we get a decent signal) We then had a nice few miles cruising along the lake shore, before hitting what was set to be the norm for the rest of the first half of the day- nasty hills. We basically climbed constantly for 15 miles or so, but it was never a steady incline, and the varying gradient did some real damage. The climbs culminated with a really steep peak, which opened up to some amazing views although I spent the first few mins up there trying to put my lungs back down my throat.
What goes up…must come down and that means fun! We really got a move on, with Andy B hitting very close to 50mph, but we throttled back a bit after Mark, who is a descending hero, almost inspected the undergrowth very closely on one bend, a broken face is not a strong look in lycra.
I personally had a fairly big descent, my first real mental crash of the trip. At lunch, I was pretty lost. If you’ve never felt it, it is hard to describe, but you don’t know what to do with yourself. In technical terms it is called hitting the wall, but we’ll stick with just feeling really, really, shite. Thankfully once you’ve been there you also know you will come out the other side, it’s just a hard 30 mins or so getting there.
Oh and our van managed to roll fwd despite the handbrake on a garage forecourt. Unfortunately, there was a motorbike in front of it, and a biker man filling with Oil. For a while a very small part of Northern Scotland looked like BP had been up to their tricks again. Ooops
The second half of the trip was much flatter (thankfully) and we ended up cruising past Ben Nevis and into Fort William- East to West coast in one day! One thing that really stood out for me was stopping at the Commando Memorial which is right up in the hills. There are individual tributes to soldiers from just about every war, but the really hard hitting ones are the photos of guys killed recently in Iraq and Afghanistan. It’s a moving and fittingly stunning place, and it certainly made me man up a bit- puts into perspective what you’re doing, could be much worse.
So that was day 3, which we’ve just finished off with a smashing steak and is now rapidly powering down. As I mentioned, tomorrow isn’t one we’re not exactly looking forward to- we’ve been dreading the climb out of village tomorrow since we set off – 7 miles long and pretty full on. Gulp. I guess we didn’t come on this not to be challenged though. Bring it on. (by the morning I might actually mean that!)
Time to get in my mega zeds. zzz
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