As with a lot of the rest of Scotland, we rode along one long road for most of the day. An A-road in name only, the A836 from Loch Shin, via Loch Loyal to Tongue, is a single track barely used by anyone. This made for very pleasant cycling, across undulating moorland, past conifer plantations, eerily-quiet lochs and towards the imposing peaks of Ben Hope and Ben Loyal. We could have headed directly to John O'Groats, but the lure of more British hinterland proved too great. Such was our pace (average 15.1m/h), we completed the day's ride by lunchtime. We spent the afternoon in Tongue, a very pretty place, but not somewhere you'd describe as lively. Rolfe and Ben went exploring, cycling across the causeway, up the headland, in search of good views. Unfortunately a sea
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