74km: 1134m accent: 281m max height: 7hrs 10 ride time
Punctures 0: Stacks 0
An 8am start, in cooler temperatures saw us leave the shores of Loch Hourn and up the silver birch cladded Glen Arnisdale. With some sections too steep and bouldery to ride, progress was slow - 3 hours to do 12km.
Once at our highest point of the day, things sped up. There were a few sections which due to the terrain, like on the accent was not ridable, but on the whole it was and we were quickly back at sea level. A rowing boat at a loch side proved to tempting for us. Gingerly turning the boat over and placing it on the water, we felt the very small leak, the rough edges and the frayed bailing string as oar locks will not stop us. Once afloat Helen discovered that rowing was a new skill and now already in the middle of the loch, thanks to the wind. Matt decided to take the helm, a too-close-for-comfort wobble happened as the switched places. Most importantly the feet stayed dry throughout the mission.
Once at Kinloch Hourn we were on a single track tarmac road, which undulated across open moorland down to Loch Gary. This was a tough section, going straight into the wind and with limited breaks due to the chill. We soon perfected our peloton riding to conserve energy.
Once off road again, the sun came out, as did the encounters with animals. When the highland cow turned its head towards me and it started to huff and puff a bit, just after this photo, I hurriedly move on past. Helen developed a wee fear of lambs, as one came charging at her as we were riding along. It was acting as if it was possessed and was going to take a chunk out of her leg...both lamb and Helen were unharmed.
Once at Invergary we headed up and away from the A-road which would take us to the end of the day at Fort Augustus and onto a single track section which ran parallel to the road. Even at this point of the day it was still worth while. A bike swap between myself and Helen gave us a different riding position of a little bit, to ease the pains which were creeping in.
The last 7km were along the Caledonian Canal, another head wind to contend with and the difficulty of not being able to overtake a kid on his bike! As soon as we got to Fort Augustus we raided the shop and consumed a lot of food very quickly - a sure sign we did not have enough food that day.
We stayed the night in Morag's hostel, voted as being the best and with the best shower!
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