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Published: August 27th 2008
I'm back home and ready for the final installment...week three and the Scotland leg.
Day 17, Tuesday 19th August: Belfast - Larne - Troon 28.81 miles
Average speed 10.8 mph
Time spent peddaling away: 2 hours, 38 mins The 3 Aussie women I'm sharing a dorm with are all up at 8am preening themsleves, I can't imagine travelling with a second change of clothes anymore, let alone a hairdryer and full make-up bag!! Great cafe in the hostel so get myself a full irish in a soda roll for breakfast, just what I needed for a hard morning on the internet! Taking it easy today after my fall yesterday, especially as my ribs are achig rather worryingly this morning. Discover I have ripped my lovely, expensive, waterproof panniers during my fall so try patching them up with electrical tape and puncture repair patches!
As for cycling, not too much to do today. A short jaunt along the coast to Larne where I get the ferry across to Troon. Bit scared about following another main road, but luckily for me the A2 is at a standstill and I can sail past 2 1/2 miles of queued traffic! So tired I
sleep through the entire ferry crossing so miss seeing any of the islands along the way.
Day 18, Wednesday 20th August: Troon to Loch Lomond 68.42 miles
Average speed 10.3mph
Travel time: 6 hours 33 mins Stayed at a lovely B&B last night. The couple running Collenan House generously donated my room rate to charity and waved me off into a grey and damp morning. A deer jumps across my path a couple of miles down the road and I know I'm in Scotland! Follow the NCN route in and out of Glasgow following disused railway lines - great paths except they add miles and miles onto my day which I really don't feel like right now. Weather is atrotious again, pass through my deepest flood yet in an underpass in Glasgow and have visions of the Belfast news from the weekend! At least it washes away all the broken glass, bunking schoolkids and drunks who seem to hang around every other underpass in the city. The grating of metal on metal warns me I've reached the end of yet another set of brakepads and the situation is so dire I attempt changing them in the rain
on my own. My amateur attempts are fairly rubbish though and spend the next 2 hours searching for a bike shop to do a proper job of adjusting them. All this means I miss out on lunch so feeling pretty dismal by mid-afternoon. Follow the river up to Loch Lomond and bump into the first other 'end to enders' I've met going the same direction as me. They've got another 15 miles to go but I'm very happy to see my castle on the horizon and the opportunity to give up for the night!
Day 19, Thursday 21st August: Loch Lomond to Glencoe 70.72 miles
11.6mph
Time sat in the saddle: 6 hours 3 mins The athletic diet is going downhill very rapidly...today I eat 2 slices of lemon cake for breakfast!! I've been ignoring a slow puncture in my front wheel since Wales but today it insists on some proper attention so half an hour into the day I stop and patch it with my new magic self adhesive patches (thank god I didn't use them all up repairing the ripped panniers!) Unfortunately yet another morning of low cloud means I don't get to fully appreciate
the beauty of Loch Lomond as I cycle along her banks. At least I don't have to worry about getting lost today - only 3 road junctions the whole journey, and one of those was the turning to the hostel! This does mean the only option is to ride along the A82, possibly the most scenic. and therfore most-heavily-congested-with-tourist-coaches-A-road in Britain!
Finally some kind person is looking down on me and the weather clears by lunchtime, and what amazing scenes the clouds had been hiding. The road passes through a series of Glens with towering mountains rising up either side and shimmering Lochs dotted across the moorland. I hardly notice any climbing on this part of the journey because I'm so distracted by the views, yet by the time I've reached the summit of Rannoch Moor I'm 1142 feet above sea level (which is what level I was virtually at in Glasgow yesterday afternoon)! Push into a strong headwind as I enter Glencoe but the views are still rewarding me. Stop for a photo and the two cyclists I saw yesterday pull up behind me - Phil and Steve doing their own mad charity cycling thang - feel a glow
of pride I overtook them when they started so far ahead of me!!
I knew today had been too good to be true, freewheel into Glencoe and into freezing rain showers and clouds of midges. Ah well, I find venison sausages for £1.50 in the local store so that cheers me up again! I must be becoming famous or something, three motorcycling lads come up to me in the hostel tonight and ask if I'm 'The Cyclist' - is that really how I want to be remembered?!
Day 20, Friday 22nd August: Glencoe to Loch Ness 62.52 miles
12.1mph
5 hours 8 mins The sun is out today, hip hip hip horray! The closer I get to the end the more I seem to stop, I'm worried sub-conciously I don't want to get there! Get chatting to a fellow cyclist at breakfast, Chris, who has been staying at the same hostels as me the whole way through Scotland. Nice to have someone else to compare notes with and moan about the trials of the day! Follow the Caledonian Canal path from Fort William, a nice change from the busy A82 but very bumpy on an already saddle
sore bum! Actually have to apply sunscreen today, much to the amusement of some workmen nearby, as the sun then instantly goes behind a cloud! Doesn't spoil the stunning scenery along Loch Lochy and Loch Oich though. Jinx the weather even more by buying an ice cream in Fort Augustus and the heavens open on me for the last 5 miles of the day! Ah well, at least there's no shortage of hot water at these Scottish YHAs. Driven mad by midge bites in the night - little buggers attack you within seconds of stopping anywhere.
Today I passed the monumental 1000 mile mark, and didn't even notice, gutting!
Day 21, Saturday 23rd August: Loch Ness to Ardgay 73.47 miles
11.8mph
6 hours 10 mins Spectacular views of Loch Ness out of my bedroom window this morning, but no sightings of the monster. Pass through Drumnadrochit where they are holding Highland Games, but don't stop because the town smells of sewage! Continue along the banks of Loch Ness to Inverness and then cross over the Moray Firth (on the look out for dolphins but only see seagulls) and cut across the base of the Black Isle. Finally
The Crask Inn
The only building for miles aroundhit some hills in Scotland as I head inland towards Ardgay. Scenery is still amazing, desolate moorland and mountains and hardly another soul to be found. All the heather is attracting the bumblebees and I think they may be mistaking my pink jacket for a moving meal as I seem to be bombarded by colonies of them as I cycle along! The only real disappointment is that in this spectacular, remote area of our country there is so much litter by the side of the road. In one 1/4 mile stretch I count 34 items including red bull cans, water botles, fag packets and sweet wrappers (yes I'm bored and going a bit mad on my own to count rubbish), how does so much accumulate on such a seemingly deserted road?
Tonight I'm staying with a lovely old lady called Mrs Munroe on her croft in the middle of nowhere (the local castle was fully booked!). She was worried I wouldn't make it the extra 4 miles down the track to her B&B as I'm cycling, but the thought of a bath and a home cooked meal was enough to keep me peddaling a bit longer! Feast on roast lamb
Falls of Shin
Where I saw Salmon a leaping and veg from her garden and homemade blackberry pudding until I'm so stuffed all I can do is roll into the TV room and watch X Factor with my hostess.
Day 22, Sunday 24th August: Ardgay to Tounge 58.93 miles
12.0mph
4 hours 52 mins Stuff myself with even more homemade goodies at breakfast and heave myself onto my bike and into a strong wind. Take a side road up to the Falls of Shin and see Salmon leaping up a massive waterfall - great inspiration, if they can continue their seemingly impossible struggle I can keep cycling for a couple more days!
Take the main A road up to Tounge becasue it is the most direct, and pretty much the only road you can take. Hilarious that it is classified an A road - it's a single lane, roughed up track with some passing places! Such an exposed and remote location, amazing to ride through. Don't pass a single building for over an hour! When I do luckily it is an inn so I stop for a quick drink. Such a bizarre little place with a couple of fishermen and another cyclist sheltering from the wind.
First time I've met another girl cycling alone and this girl is from Israel and cycling round Britain for 4 1/2 months - puts my efforts to shame!
Wind is really strong when I set off again and from all directions so it just buffers me across the road as I make shaky progress up past Loch Loyal and the imposing craggy peaks of Ben Loyal. Finally get a glimpse of the North coast of Scotland - I've nearly made it!!! Beautiful views down to Tongue with the causeway, a ruined castle, and Rabbit Islands laid out before me in the mid-afternoon sunshine.
Chris cycles up to the youth hostel just after me (although declares he's been here much longer, hmm) and we're both faced with the problem of having no food and no shops open to buy any. While he may still have energy to cycle another 4 miles to the pub for high tea, I'm quite happy to work my way through the cake table laid on by the hostel owner, who it has to be said makes the best cakes I have ever tasted (sorry Mum it's true)! Meet a lovely Dutch couple who are motorbiking around
Scotland - I think bikers have a lot of sympathy for us crazy cyclists as they're always very friendly to me. Offer to make me dinner but by this point I'm contentedly full of Whisky Cake!
Day 23, Monday 25th August: Tounge to JOHN O'GROATS 64.72 miles
12.9mph
4 hours 58 mins The end is finally here. Very strange mixed feelings about it. Didn't sleep too well last night (due to cake or excitement I'm not so sure). Anyway, raring to go when I get up and rush off into the rain (it was only a matter of time before the weather turned again). Confronted by a series of gruelling hills and despite going due west the wind is buffetting me around all over the place and forcing me to pedal hard downhill because the road twists so much. I know Chris was almost ready to leave and will be hot on my heels so added incentive to force my very sore knees to keep pushing up the hills. Considering the average speed I managed today the addrenalin must have been really pumping - that or cake really is the best thing for an athletic diet!!
Stop
for the loo and Chris overtakes me, then I overtake him when he stops for his performance enhancing caffine fix. The race is on! Have lunch together in Thurso and then the cheeky sod overtakes me on his caffine high and I have to eat his dust as we race the final 20 miles to the end. The last laugh is mine though when I reach the finish line and there's no sight of Chris anywhere...he must be the only person to have got lost in John o'Groats and he eventually rolls in half and hour and an extra 5 miles later!
As was to be expected, John o'Groats is a massive anti-climax. Full of coach-bound tourists and tackiness. Great views across to the islands though and some lovely rainbow effects as weather fronts pass out at sea improve things slightly.
Celebrate with a whisky hot chocolate and meet a couple of Scottish girls who have just finished too. We're all staying at the same hotel so go back and celebrate some more with curry and wine and tales of our adventures.
So that's it. I've done it. The next day I woke up with a stinking
hangover and cycled 17 miles in a fierce headwind to Wick to catch my train. 18 hours of extreme boredom later I've made it back to the South Coast and it's all beginning to feel like a distant memory already, with just the scab on my knee to remind me of all the events of the past few weeks. So now I just need to move house, start my new job, massage my knees and round up all the sponsorship. Still counting things up but at the moment it looks like I may have raised as many pounds as I cycled miles!! Thanks so much to everyone who has supported me and donated their money/spare room/food/encouragement it has all been much appreciated.
Now I just need to plan the next trip! fxx
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