Diary - Day 17

With the pressure built up over the first 16 days coming to a head yesterday afternoon we really needed a day in our favour. Fortunately it came just in time. After what seemed like an eternity battling the endlessly frustrating conditions we woke up to find the sun was out, the views were superb and the wind was at our backs. Hallelujah would have been a suitable word, but we settled for "about bloody time". We took the obligatory photos, had an ice-cream for breakfast (since watching Shaun of the Dead it has always seemed sensible to demand a Cornetto for breakfast) and moved on towards Thurso.


Before we reached Thurso we had to do a 10 mile detour to Dunnett Head, the most northerly point on the mainland. The weather was such that it looked quite nice, the sea blue, visibility very good and it was finally warm. Everything was perfect, except that we were getting hungry so we moved on after chatting to a coach driver and a few of his charges. There really is nothing particularly interesting about this stretch of the coast, but we were making good time with the wind helping us along and arrived in Thurso before long.

A stop at Sandra's cafe for a nice big fry-up for lunch, then a fruitless search for an open bike shop followed. We found the bike shop easy enough but it was Monday and apparently they close on Monday, which summed up our luck really. Sam's back brake-disc was bent due to a certain incident from yesterday and there were one or two other problems as well including knackered tyres. The brake-disc would just have to remain bent as there wasn't going to be another bike shop until Ullapool (in fact there wasn't one there either even though we were told there was), but on the plus side sudden braking was unlikely to be needed for some time. Traffic was not going to be a commonly used word over the next few hundred miles.


About 5 miles out of Thurso Sam stopped with a dodgy stomach. For the next week he would be plagued with difficulties as his stomach pained him throughout the days. It seemed to be something like an ulcer reacting to pressure placed on it, but as far as I am aware no explanation was found despite consulting a gp in Ullapool. Despite this development we managed to enjoy the rest of the day more than any so far, particularly as we left Caithness and headed into Sutherland. The land began to rise and we were treated to numerous long sweeping descents and similar ascents through a fairly dramatic landscape. Caithness and most of the East coast had been disappointingly samey so this was where Scotland really began for us. Had the wind been coming from the other direction along this stretch we would probably not have been so ecstatic.

By the time we reached Bettyhill we were about 70 miles in and still full of energy. It was certainly a testament to Sam's character that despite the amount of things going against him he always kept going. Unfortunately most of the things he had to battle were his own doing, the stomach problem was quite probably a result of continuous physical exertion after little or no preparation according to the doctor. Or it could be from bad diet, or both............

From Bettyhill we headed on to Tongue with the sun still out and the countryside glowing as we whizzed through. Plenty of beautiful looking beaches in this part of the world as well, although I wonder how attractive they would be at other times of the year? We arrived in Tongue at about 7pm with another 28 or so miles to go if we were to reach Durness. It wasn't imperative that we did, but it seemed sensible and there wasn't going to be much to do in Tongue anyway. So we ate pasties, sarnies and whatever else from the shop, filled up with liquids and headed off across the bridge over the Kyle and onwards to Loch Eriboll.


Loch Eriboll turned out to be the highlight of the entire trip. 90 miles into the day and we were suitably tired, but with the weather still superb and the scenery across the loch and into the mountains being as inspiring as it is possible to be we found it very easy to glide around the edge and keep pushing up all of the little hills. We stopped at a small bridge on the west side of the lock where this photo was taken.


After polishing of the very tasty chocolate and ginger biscuits we were back on the bikes and heading along the final stretch to Durness. A few more climbs but it all went by quite quickly and we rolled into the campsite at about 9:30, showered and headed for the pub. We were not hungry after eating continuously throughout the day so just had a few pints at the pub then rolled out at about 11:30. Weirdly it was still perfectly light. It would stay this way pretty much all night apparently although I was sleeping very soundly as usual so had no idea about such phenomena.

Day 17 review

Mileage = 108
Awesome day factor = 100%
Hills climbed = 100s, but with the wind up your backside it seems that much easier.