Day 8: And....relax!

After the epic day 7 battle through Glencoe, I have to admit that I woke up on Saturday feeling pretty worn out and not really in the mood for yet another 100+ mile bike ride! But it turned out that the cycling gods were smiling upon us again – not only did the sun come out but as we headed north east from Fort William we had a strong tailwind to push us along. So off we set, soon whizzing along on nice flat roads (that were actually quite smooth for once).

However, either by coincidence or just because we were the coolest peloton on the road and everyone wanted to ride with us (or so we like to think!), our gang soon found ourselves part of a much bigger group. We’d done the same on some other days and sometimes it was fine – the day before for example it felt like the more people you had around the better because it meant that everyone got sheltered from the wind for longer. The downside is that you end up all having to cycle in a big long line, which can make it a bit hard to manage and keep at a steady pace, plus it makes it hard to talk to each other! After an hour or so, this big group was going faster and faster but it felt like we were just ploughing along and barely having a chance to enjoy the views.

So, our gang of 4 (me, Victoria, Tom and Steve) made a tactical toilet stop, let the racers race off ahead and decided to take it easy for the day. I’m so glad we did because the scenery was absolutely fantastic – probably one of the best days of the whole trip. We had quite a big climb early on with amazing views once we got to the top, then miles and miles of descent before riding the full length of Loch Ness along its southern edge. Then it was into Inverness where we stopped for a coffee by the river in the sunshine – such a nice change from huddling around in the cold and rain at the pitsops the day before!

In the afternoon, we headed further north through more lovely rolling countryside, then had another long climb with yet more amazing views of the coast from the top. It was pretty windy at the top – at one point it felt like we were having to lean about 20 degrees to the left just to stop ourselves from being blown over!! But then another big descent down into Kyle of Sutherland for our final night of camping. After the rain and mud of some of the camps, it was brilliant to finish at a really pretty and relatively dry one! And I think the caterers pulled out all the stops for our final night – fish pie followed by cheesecake, fruit crumble and fresh fruit (yes, three desserts is perfectly acceptable...I think I was in a minority that usually only had one (large) maincourse a night instead of just asking for a bit of everything).