![]() They also open early enough that we can grab a nice breakfast as well. That was going to happen regardless, so I’m stoked. They’re totally cool with it providing we order a main meal. The staff are lovely and we order some drinks and ask about the camping situation. It has lovely flat grassy areas outside and I’m immediately thinking of asking them if we can camp the night outside (Desperation Face: Engaged). I use an outside tap to try and wash the bugs out of my eye and then we try the old ‘get your partner to jam her finger in your eye’ trick, but no dice, so we push quickly on along the A837 looking at other establishments along the way until we get to the Achness Hotel. We head to the Oykel Bridge Hotel, knowing it will be closed, having earlier rung them to ask about booking a room. I’m not wearing my sunglasses and my eyes get slammed with some bugs during the fast forest descent towards Oykel Bridge. We ring up and book bike spots on the necessary trains. While at the pub we decide not to hang around tomorrow but instead ride south to Lairg to get the 3pm train to Inverness then overnight there and train to Glasgow, then overnight and another train back to London. Over to the bar it is for a celebratory Irn Bru (and some Orkney beers, whiskies and the takeaway meals we ordered). I find another tick on my leg while in the bogs and remove it with no drama. Hot showers before ringing through a large food order just before the kitchen closed. The Tyvek ‘groundsheet’ (it’s building insulation) off ebay we cut to size is full of holes now from rubbing on Malwinki’s brake cables and I wonder how it will cope with the soggy ground. They’ve got showers (extra thanks to whoever left their shampoo in there) and a nearby bar and some onsite food shop doing takeaway next to the pub. We try and find a B&B but everything is either shut, full, or £300/night so we end up camping at Sango Sands for £20. Not needing to detour to Overscaig Lodge for supplies we turned north on the A838 past Loch Merkland and then branched off right through West Merkland lodge’s ‘two-boulder gate’. Tip: if you’re a deer hunter, maybe don’t shoot from 2m off an open road and don’t get upset when someone doesn’t see you if you’re dressed in camo! Ha! So I stop near a hillock before a turn and go to get the phone out for a photo when the hillock moves, waves its arm and tells me to keep going! Turns out some deer hunters in camo (legit SMIDSY!) were laying right there and I’d stopped right behind them. ![]() I was in front and thought I’d let Malwinki catch up and at the same time take a photo of the loch. Had a funny incident on the descent to Loch Shin. I was carrying Ceramic Wet lube and once clean and lubed the chain would quiet down again. Note: waxed chains get stripped and noisy pretty quickly in the wet in Scotland but it was a case of run what ya brung for me. I use ‘relubing of my chain’ as an excuse for a breather. The climb up from the Duchally Weir is paved but tough. Loch Shin, photo not taken from up high like I wanted to… Need to pay more attention to the Glasgow events listings… Same again for Glasgow after some shenanigans changing at Perth with Scotland playing football on Saturday! This is the second time we’ve paid silly prices for hotels in Glasgow – the last time was during Commonwealth Games. In Inverness we have a hotel and do a little bar crawl. We pack cakes for the train trip and it starts to rain for the first time in a few days. ![]() We make good time on the road (I can use the aerobars for the 2nd time :D) so have lunch in a nice cafe in Lairg ( Pier Cafe). In the morning it’s ~5hr ride to Lairg, passing the ferry port for Cape Wrath (bittersweet) and using some of the NC500’s A838 coast road before heading inland/east. After taking the tiny ferry onto the Cape Wrath peninsula, the cycle on off-road track to the Lighthouse and the end of the trail is just a great end to a magnificent journey that has taken you through the very heart of the Scottish Highlands.
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