...into the rain

Miles: 90 (866)
Punctures: 0

After eight days the weather had to break, and break it did. As we enjoyed our breakfast in charming Fort Augustus (served by Mark Gattis' ginger twin) the rain came down in sheets. No dodging it, we had miles to make and so we togged up with booties, gloves & raincoats. Not a sight to inspire.

The rain followed us along Loch Ness to Castle Urquart- quite miserable. At Drumnadrochit we decided to cut a corner and go straight across to Beauly. This entailed going along a minor road with a chevron. A chevron means quite steep, and in this case, up. We gave it our best but a 15% gradient for 1km proved too much. Still, it was nice to walk a bit with the bike. The rain had abated and we had a super freewheel at 40mph+ until another squall forced us into a bus shelter.

With more rain threatening, we made for Dingwall and lunch. A real treat, all we could find was Wimpy. Deep joy, I almost preferred being in the rain, though we could at least warm up a bit. A quick trip to Lidl and we were back on the road, the tail wind letting us hammer it all the way to Tain.

Then across the bridge at Dornoch Firth, a real blast with 35mph side winds. By now, with 70 miles up we were both feeling bushed and my feet were wet and cold. Made it to Brora where we are staying in a holiday flat with a power shower, washing machine, and Sky - a notch or two up from some of our resting places.

Tomorrow we hope to finish the ride and spend the night in Wick. From that, we'll have to work out how to get back to Inverness.