Day 24 Thurso to John o' Groats

Did my usual and woke at 5, looked for my phone to do some more blog but couldn't find it easily so did the crossword and some puzzles in the paper. Slept another hour from 6 to 7.

Breakfast is included in the hostel fee, its just a diy job. Cereals,milk, bread and preserves are in/on the fridge, good choice too. We tidy up the sink area then pack up our gear. The welcoming party are not due at JoG until 1330 ish so we go for a look around Thurso and a coffee. 

I catch up with some more blogging and Julian with his favourite paper, the saturday Guardian.

I am in a bit of a dream, forgetting we still have 20 miles or so to ride. It seems nothing now, just a couple of hours. The heavy drizzle had relented a bit now so we set off at an easy pace. First hill of the day arrives almost immediately getting out of Thurso. Its single track and we have to judge whether or not drivers are considerate or not to allow us to continue or force us to stop. The view is minimal due to the fog but it is looking brighter towards the east.

We have seen a variety of pets from alpacas and llamas to these emu's. 

Throught the journey the fields are supporting many young animals who look at us inquisitively as we glide silently by, and Caithness has had a good crop of calves this year. The land is very lush and they look happy in their green fields.

The road has very long straight sections and as the fog lifts we can see a mile or so ahead. One more hill and its only 2 miles to go. We reach the last junction and take pics of ourselves then freewheel downhill to the car park, raising our hands as they do on the last day of the ' Tour '. We've done it!

1242 miles and an untold number of flapjacks and pork pies. 

It has been an interesting, and in places, challenging cycle ride. We have experienced kindness from people willing to go out of their way to help complete strangers and seen such a variety of landscape in this relatively small country of ours. It has been great to do at a manageable pace and i would say to anyone thinking of doing it to just go and do it.

A big thank you to our families and friends who have sponsored us for MS Research and supported us by giving us a bed and food. We couldn't have done it without you!

Day 23 Crask to Thurso

MDriech is what the forecast says, and it is.

We do the last few meters from the Crask to the top of the road then it's a long downhill to Altnahara. We pass 2 cyclists beginning the long grind up and i am thankful to not be going that way. 

Turning right at Altnahara we take the Strathnaver road to Bettyhill. We heard it had been resurfaced recently and sections of it are nice and smooth. The summit of Ben Klibreck is in the cloud but there are plenty of things to look at. The caravan club has a site here and folk are sitting in waiting for a breeze to shoo the midges away. 

The road is very quiet apart from a low loader which passes us for the third time. I have a feeling the driver is dropping off items he has collected in Tain or Lairg for friends. 

There is a lot of deciduous woodland on this side, south of the crask it is mainly conifers. 

We join the main road and 2 miles later we are in Bettyhill. One more hill to ascend before lunch in the cafe at the Tourist Info at the bottom on the far side. 

There is a large map on the wall as you go in to the cafe which makes it easy to see how hilly the afternoon cycle will be. Not too bad it seems. After soup and a toastie i am ready to go. The waitresx kindly fills a water bottle for me and i drop a  tablet in to keep essential elementz topped up. 

Starting off its uphill with no warm up so its nice and slow to get the legs gokng again. Half an hour later a stop iz required and i take off my cycling glasses  ho txke a picture. I put ghem on a wall and think ' better not leave them there ax you mkght fofget them'. Immediately I think No how coujld i do that i will see them next to my bike. 10 mins later we are a mile down the road and I realise i have left them on the wall. Doh! How can you do that I ask myself. I turn around to get them and Julian laughs. 

These are my second pair of the trip, the first fell off and broke after i had hung them on the barbag at a stop. I vowed then to always put them in the barbag to avoid leaving or bresking them. Ah well lesson learned, again. 

Spot the glasses. 

Glasses retrieved i was lucky it was a flat ride and not a big hill liike the one we were about to meet. What a great run down it was, over a mile and not a pedal pushed. Great. 

It is not long before we are ready for another scone and cuppa. The Inn at Strathy appears on cue so in we go and shelter from the drizzly rain that has been on and off today. 

One more hill and its down the other side to Reay. I check the shop for snacky biscuits but sadly none, i take 2 banana's though and we devour them straightaway. 

We turn off onto a quiet road here, a back road to Thurso as recommended by Sustrans. Pity nobody told the locals. It is the local racetrack with few corners and long straights. Everyone of the locals should be made to cycle this and feel the draught as their neighbours pass at 60 or more. One of the worst roads. 

The other question that pops into my head is this, why are the Sustrans road signs so small.?Why are they not the same size as other roadsigns? If they were, perhaps it would remind drivers of the other road users around. A good bit of the Bettyhill to Thurso road is A road and not a single warning sign of cyclists. 

60 miles done, our penultimate day is over. We check in to the private hostel which is ok but a bit rundown from its onetime 4* Tourist board rating. Only a 2 or 1 now from me. The warden is helpful and shows us where to park our cycles then our room and the kitchen/common room. It is warm and has character. Free wifi and even a pc to use which is more than some B&B's these days. 

We go to the hotel next door for food and catch a bit of the Spanish Dutch world cup game. It seems perhaps the chef is also watching it as i have to return my meal, not hot in the middle. The next Lasagne arrives piping hot with a complimentary drink and an apologetic barman. It was very tasty. 

We return to the common room and have our last 2 games of cribbage. Its 1 each but England win the tournament by 3 games. Well done Julian, i'll be back!.

Once again I dont need any rocking. Our 'roomy ' is a strange person, trying to get to Skye and constant questions so while Julian is patient with him i turn over and drift off. I did find out the bus times and where the bus stop was for him but he seems troubled that you cant get a bus from Thurso to Portree. I dont think he can picture a map and realise he is over 100 miles too far north. 

Night night. 

Todays mileage, 60 for Julian, 62 for me.

Total now 1221

Day 22 Cromarty to Crask Inn.

 B'fast for 730 then ferry at 830. We were the only passengers across to the Nigg side. A good view is had of a Rig being repaired in the drydock. 

The route goes for 7 or 8 miles NE then NW a similar distance to reach Tain. Here we make a beeline for the coffee shop and have more fuel. Well I do, Julian had  had porridge and felt ok. 

North from Tain route 1 is on the A9, only for a mile and a half but its long enough and then its onto the Bonar Bridge road. This is quieter but one of the roughest stretches we have ridden on. 

Lunch stop at Bonar bridge, nice tearoom on the corner opposite the hotel. We meet an Ozzie, Bob, doing Lejog supported by his wife in car. He has a Garmin device for his route but has had problems with it. He is doing the end 2 end over 2 weeks. 

Checking the map its 10 miles to Lairg, mostly on a quiet road , then 13 to the Crask Inn. The B road goes past the Falls of Shin but on stopping at the carpark the dreaded little monsters make their presence felt so we don't hang around.  We get to Lairg but there is not a lot to see and the coop is closed due to a bereavement so we carry on. 

To our amazement the sun is almost getting through and we take a break at the side of the road. Several cyclists go by and none stop but we exchange a couple of cheery 'afternoons'. A group of 10 is amongst them , we meet them later at the Crask. They are all from Southend and are raising money for prostate cancer. I get chatting to one of them later in the Crask and he used to go sailing in Burnam on Crouch in the '70's. We talk about Tucker Browns and Joe the boatman.

We get to the Crask about 5 and Mike welcomes us. We check out our accommodation then have a beer infront of the stove which has been lit. We meet some of the cyclists we saw earlier then wash and change for dinner. There are 21 for food tonight so the menu is passed around as there are some limitations on choice and we decide what we want. 

The steak pie is delicious and followed by  rhubarb crumble and ice cream. 

Tonight we are 'camping' in the wendy house. Settling down i spot a couple of holes where the midges are coming in so its out with the sticky tape to seal them up. 

The overflow accommodation - the wendy house. 

I am feeling tired and am very quickly asleep. Two days to go and i can feel myself looking forward to the finish line. 

Day 21 Carrbridge to Cromarty

We were away at 8.15 this morning. Cousin Ronald phoned last night and invited us for lunch at North Kessock so we left early so we could have a leisurely lunch.

The climb up to the Slochd summit was fairly gentle and a good run down to Tomatin followed. We stopped for a tea at a trailer tea stop in a layby where the old Tomatin filling station used to be. Next out the Moy road which is very nice and theback road to Culloden. 

We were soon in Inverness which is very busy then a detour to ascend the east side of the Kessock bridge due to work on the usual western side. 

A great welcome from Ron Bosena and Amanda and a huge spread for lunch. Thank you so much it was delicious. We had a good blether over the 2 hours but we had to return to the road and set off for Cromarty. 

The quiet road to Fortrose is long and and straight with nice views. It goes along the centre of the Black Isle. Then it was past the Rosemarkie transmitter site where i spent a few days duting my time in the BBC. Some more long downhills to Cromarty where we found a B & B. 

We went to the ferry slipway to see where it was and were shocked to see a sign saying something about the ferry being suspended. What? There was a mobile number which i phoned and was relieved to discover the ferry was running, it was just tied up as there was no customers, and it would be there for us tomorrow morning.

Food was had in the Royal Hotel then a walk around the harbour to look at a brigg which was tied up. We were pretty tired so had an early night with lights out at 1030. 

Mileage now over 1100. 57 today. 

Day 20.5 Day off in Strathspey.

Woke up at 0430, couldn't get back to sleep. Finished off yesterdays blog. Checked 'Mikes Bikes' website for opening times - 0930. Phoned just after,  sounded positive, bring bike in at 1230. 

Calum checked over the bike and measured chain wear. New cassette and chain and rear brake blocks also required. Returning at 1645 i saw my bike parked outside. New wheels and clean chain. Looked great. 

Neighbour Raymond had kindly brought me down in his car and would now take me to where i had broken down.   

I wanted to cycle the section from here to Carrbridge so i had a complete route done. There was a huge downpour as we arrived at the spot so we waited in the car for 5 mins. It eased and that was my  cue. Waterproofs on, lights on, 17 miles to go. With no load the bike was strangely lightweight, it almost jumped forward as i pushed down on the pedal. 

Coming through Aviemore I caught up with a Frenchman looking to go to Inverness. He had a huge scale map with hardly any roads on it and did not appreciate the distances involved. I indicated I could take him to Carrbridge and he seemed ok with this. After 20 mins cycling on rhe rough path to Boat of Garten, he checked his gps and found to his utter dismay he had done a big loop. Seems he had started in Tomintoul but I got the impression he was blamiing me. 

I showed him my map and where Inverness was. By the way no english is being spoken, only french, my best effort.  In the end I got him to the campsite at Boat but he was not happy. Tried to tell him his map scale is not good for cycling.

C'est la vie.  

The ride back was fine, and bike is good for tomorrow. Cromarty on the Black Isle next stop. 

Day 20 Birnam northwards

We have to thank John McD for the route advice yesterday, which we took. The C road from Milnathorpe over the hill to Glenfarg and the Bridge of Earn was just fantastic. The uphill sections were fairly easy considering some of the roads we have scaled but the long downhills were fantastic. We were in Perth in no time.  Thanks John. 

Today we hope to cross the next ' barrier ', Drumochter. The forecast for tuesday looks grim so this may be an enforced day-off instead, for catching up with washing. 

Our night in the Merryburn Hotel , Birnham was very good. Hilary the owner  was very helpful, insisting that we bring the bikes into a function room. 

The homemade steak pie really is, the steak is locally sourced and very tasty. 

This was taken in the cellar bar while breakfast was had in the comfortable lounge bar at the front door. 

The morning was bright and sunny and we were keen to get on the road hoping to make Carrbridge. This was going to mean our longest mileage yet of roughly 80 miles but we were confident of making it. 

The route is mostly on the old A9 so mostly a reasonable surface. Ballinluig was our first stop for a cuppa and just as we were getting there we saw this old steam tractor towing a landrover down the A9. 

Just before Pitlochry we came across an ancient monument - the Dunfallandy Stone. Its an early Pictish stone with symbols on it, from around 400 AD. 

Pitlochry was hosting the usual coach tours and it looked like it would be a good day for the shops here. Blair Atholl has some nice picnic tables at the bridge over the Tilt and a wee cafe here beside the carpark. Pedalling onwards we passed busy Bruar on a road section still used to Calvine then it was off-road on the old-road making a long gradual ascent to Drumochter. We came across this small snake on the road. 

On route we watched the Pylon builders rigging the new power lines, working at the ends of the pylon's arms. Its only then you get an idea how big these structures are. The human frame next to the Meccano one. 

We spotted this interesting structure on the way. 

It stayed dry all the way to the pass but then dark clouds gathering in the SW could no longer hold back and joined us for the rest of the day. For me, this point is the psychological barrier of the trip, the end of the beginning and the beginning of the end. For Julian it was the Forth Bridge. 

Our celebratory 'snack ' was - egg mayo sandwich, banana, pork pie, bottle of fruit smoothie, picnic bar and slice of banana loaf. Thanks Jane. 

We couldn't hang around, still 40 miles to go and the rain was not for stopping. I always thought the gradient was level to Dalwhinnie from here but I am happy to report it is downhill. There was a good southerly breeze too so we were able to do 16mph with little effort. However concentration was still required as there is a lot of loose grit and pebbles on the path. 

Over a hot chocolate at Ralia we had decided to stay on the road from Kingussie to Aviemore as the cycle route cuts across to the east and adds a few miles. So 6 miles to K 'ussie , 11 to Aviemore then 12 to C'bridge. 

5 miles south of Aviemore i heard a rubbing noise from the wheels. A first scan revealed no clues so i ignored it but it seemed to be getting louder. Better stop. Spun the front wheel, silent. Tried to spin the rear, seized solid. What? The brake was binding solid onto the rim. How can this be. Deflating the tyre and dropping the wheel out was the only answer. This revealed a split rim. Oh well todays ride stops here. 

A few cars stopped to see if i was ok but thankfully the Snowdrop rescue service was alerted. A very kind driver, also Andrew, also a cyclist said he would stop on his way back if i was still stuck. He did.  And kindly took my bike back to Carrbridge. He explained how the rims wear out with heavy braking and the occassional hole or kerb contact can weaken them. Well i've have had a few of  all of these over 3 weeks. 

So its wheel shopping tomorrow. 

Val had collected my luggage and was now ready to head south to Linlithgow but not before showing me the stocked fridge for hungry cyclists. Thank you Val we had a lovely meal. 

Julian completed the cycle to Carrbridge, putting in the highest daily milesge so far. Well done!

Day 16 Felton to Berwick

Many thanks to Louisa John and Katy for a convivial evening and a super meal. Not to forget we took over every possible drying place and also the luxury of a soak in the bath - heaven. 

From Warkworth to Allnmouth there is a cycleway parallel to the road. Last year it was very rough due to tree roots and a lot of the material having been washed away. It was a nice surprise to find it has been tarred and smooth as silk. 

Julian is ahead and as i round a corner here are a pair of overtrousers on the road. Fell off the back of a bike guv. Honest. (Julians)

As you come over the bridge into Alnmouth there is a small garden area with 2 bench seats. We stop and have a pork pie and share a banana. 

At Embleton I am ahead. I remember from last time a small shop which i intend to get some juice. The small roads there make a quadrangle.  I wait for julian but he does not appear. I go back to the last junction just in time to see a cyclist disappearing around the far corner of the quadrangle.  I decide to nip back to where i had been as Julian would see me there. I sprint along but just in time to see him pass the road end. I head down to that junction but only in time to see a cyclist passing the village speed limit sign. I curse and forego my shop visit. 

It turns out it was not Julian but another cyclist in a red jacket. Julian had left something on the wall at 'Eleanors Tearoom ' and was still behind me. Thankfully we made contact via the mobile. 

We opt to continue on the B road as its quiet and get a straight line to Bamburgh.  I am hungry again and need something hot and filling. I find the butchers and they can heat a Cornish Pastie for me. Julian declines. It hits the spot. 

On we go and see dark clouds ahead. It has been dry all day and just warm enough for light clothing. I can see rain 2 or 3 miles ahead and the air temp has dropped. Oh well we have had 45 dry miles. Luckily we dont get rained on but the roads are soaking after a local downpour. 

We head for a campsite shown on the map. It isn't anymore but a mobile home park. We find out there is no campsite in Berwick now but there is a new hostel. We get the last 2 beds in this modern hostel, an old granary. It is fab. There are nice photos of what the building looked like before the conversion to hostel. An astonishing amount of work has taken place here. 

We put the bikes in the huge bikeshed then have to take them back out 20 mins later as a party of 17 cyclists arrive and threaten to jam ours in. 

Another game of Cribbage and Scotland win. England now lead by 2.