Day 3: Scotland!

Bonar Bridge to Fort Augustus 77.28 miles

Time Spent Cycling: 7 hours 51 minutes

Average Speed: 9.8 mph

We left our great guesthouse at 9am and took some photos on the Bonar Bridge itself which is an impressive structure spanning the River Dornoch before setting out on the day's ride which involved three main climbs.

The first climb was immediate and involved navigating away from the river and up through the brilliantly named Morangie Forest before descending to Dingwall. What a climb! A real brute of a slope which was negotiated extremely slowly but with the reward, again, of stunning views. The run along the top through the forest was into the strong wind and regretfully progress was slow. So slow that we weren't in Dingwall until dinner time, 1pm, the time which we were hoping to be Inverness by!

Dingwall was a great stopping off point for us. There were shops for a start! We unloaded my bike at the local bike shop for them to completely change my back brakes which had decided some 80 miles or so ago to pack in. It allowed us an hour to go and have some lunch, buy Ella a knee brace to ease her pain and buy Georgia some new padded bike gloves to ease hers. A very successful stop in the scheme of things. Fully fortified and with renewed vigour we set off towards Inverness just as the rain came down.

Climb number two came and went and at the summit we had to stop to don full waterproofs including waterproof socks and we crossed the really impressive bridge over the A9 on the cycle track which runs alongside it. It was now 3pm and we were only in Inverness with some 40 miles or so to go before we reached Fort Augustus. The military road to the south shore of Loch Ness was our preferred route and we rode along it scanning the Loch for signs of Nessie.

The road is an undulating one - it looks flat on the map! By the time we got to Dores some 5 miles or so in, we stopped off for lunch break number two in the pub. We weren't going to make the same mistake as day 1 again by not eating. The macaroni cheese and chips would be enough to power us over the top of climb number three and the final descent into Fort Augustus.

General Wade's Military Road climbs away from the loch and traverses open moorland and forests at the very peak of the loch's banks. I kid you not, this is a climb of leg-sapping proportions, not helped by the wind into our faces and the driving rain. It was an exhausting climb for us all. It didn't help that we climbed about 100 feet in the completely wrong direction at one point and had to do an about-turn. The wrong way we took was fly-infested and it was a funny sight to see Ella pushing her bike up the hill with her waterproof jacket wrapped round her head!

We had had enough. We were wet, tired and hungry again. It was now 8pm and we were still out on the road as we reached the summit of the climb. What a great feeling that was. We knew we had a steep descent all the way into Fort Augustus which we rode like demons (despite my book saying it is a dangerous descent) hitting a top speed for the day of 36.1 mph into the wind. We saw wild stags on the descent and enjoyed beautiful scenery once more. No more beautiful sight being our accommodation at Stravaigers Lodge which was conveniently right at the foot of the descent. We made it for 8.20pm just as they were getting ready to stop serving food. We ordered our grub and ate it in full cycling gear, still wet, not giving a monkey's you know what. We had made it. What an absolutely amazing day it had been, day number three and welcome to Scotland!

The view back towards Bonar Bridge and the first climb of the day conquered.

stopping to put on waterproofs. 

 

cycle path across the bridge to Inverness

Bike shop at Dingwall and a great stop for us all.

leaving the pub at Loch Ness just before the final long climb over the top.

Anyone see Nessie?

Ella's always hated flies but this did make me laugh

pushing up another section of the longest climb of the trip so far

Made it to the top. All downhill to Fort Augustus. What a day!

Nearly there, girls.

Waiting for Ella and Georgia. They're there somewhere.