Breakfast was done by the cleaner – that’s a further little snippet of information that tells you all you need to know about the Bonar Bridge hotel.

But at least the weather was good – for the first two miles. Then the heavens opened and we were treated to the first downpour of the day. At least it didn’t upset the navigation too much – today was properly simple on the map front. Head north through Lairg and hang a right at Altnaharra.

First port of call and meet up with the Fun Bus was the Falls of Shin. Cracking playground and apparently a great place to watch the salmon leap – not that we saw any. Did see plenty of fly fishing going on today, though – lots of cars with rods on the roofs and the like.

Back in the saddle we had to put up with some dull moors and heaths - which got a bit relentless. There’s no relief to the scenery – it’s on an epic scale and fairly featureless and takes time to pedal through using our weary limbs.

Luckily the monotony was broken up by the Crask Inn. Literally a pub and one house in the middle of the moorland, it served up a mean hot chocolate for the cyclists and Sasha and Luke before the final few miles to Altnaharra for lunch. We also met Jamie and Laura – two psychologists doing LE-JOG on a tandam. Now there’s something you could write a book about.

The Fun Bus went ahead to the lunchstop and found a playground in the village next to the primary school. A girl came out to play with Sasha and Luke on the swings and slide – the only pupil at the school! It wasn’t a very big place…

But it did have a fuel pump – although you had to go and ask the barman at the hotel if you wanted to use it. The hotel itself was a revelation – smart, comfortable and served up a cracking lunch in front of a roaring log fire.

But the best news of all was that today was the day Ollie got back on his bike! With his wounds healing well and ribs loosening up nicely he joined us for the ride up from Altnaharra to Bettyhill – a 24-mile roll through some of the most stunning scenery we’ve seen so far.

We pedalled right along the shores of Loch Naver then up the river that links it to the sea - it was spectacular and so good to be riding as a four again. Oddly, adding one person changed the group dynamic completely, and it felt like there was a lot more of us.

We were buzzed by RAF Tornados, Penny added another feather to her cap by turning into a one-man film crew and stopping on these deserted roads to video us and we all pedalled along in a relaxed and very contented way. Ten miles from home with Georgie’s sister and Tom and Ollie’s parents and Tom’s wife Alex and son Nicko in cars heading to meet us, it felt like we’d cracked it.

Big mistake. No, we weren’t let down by Ollie’s ribs, James knee or Georgie’s sore heel, but Tom’s tyre. First he had a puncture, than a couple of miles further on, the mesh gave up the ghost and bubbled the rubber. So there we sat, in a farmyard entrance, pondering what to do, when up rumbled Mike and Annabel (Georgie’s sister and her boyfriend) in Mike’s Aston Martin. An incongruous sight on these roads, but by this time we had at least formulated a plan.

At quarter to five we’d got hold of the nearest bike shop - in Thurso some 45 miles away and since we wouldn’t make it there by close of play, he said he’d leave the tyre next door – in Robin’s chip shop! In the meantime a quicker solution was for James and Georgie to pedal to Bettyhill, then for Mike to run James’ bike tyre back to Tom.

At least he and Ollie didn’t have to just sit on the verge. Their family were soon on the scene and they were able to relax in a Renault Espace.

Then it was just a matter of cycling the remaining five miles to Bettyhill. The elation everyone felt on seeing the sea off the north coast of Scotland was hard to describe – although we still have over 50 miles to pedal tomorrow.

Nevertheless, tonight we got to enjoy dinner with family and friends and stunning views out over wild beaches, coves and cliffs from the Bettyhill Hotel.

Highlights:

Ollie being back on his bike

Lunch at Altnaharra

The views over mountains and lochs

Getting to the sea!

Low Points:

None to speak of – big shower outside Bonar Bridge is about all.

Stage Stats:

Today’s mileage: 57.18

Total mileage: 956.67

Average speed: 14.3

Max speed: 34.1

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 28th, 2007 at 7:51 am and is filed under General chat. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.