Diary - Day 18

For a change it was my stomach that was upset this morning. Yesterday we had consumed a lot of biscuits, flapjacks and other snacks and my stomach was paying the price. Not a comfortable start but the problem was dealt with and we were away by 9:30am. Stopped almost immediately for a breakfast of sarnies and pasties and we may well have seen an eagle, but it was a bloody long way up which both suggested that it was an eagle but also that we couldn't see it very well and would never really know.

This photo was almost certainly from the day before, but the sun was out then so it looks nicer. It's all the north of Scotland whichever day it was...........


Heading south-west to Scourie was not particularly difficult and the views were pretty decent, although the sun was struggling to regain it's majesty of the day before. The problem we had was that the wind was still coming in from the East, but we had nowhere left to go in that direction. As we changed direction and headed either south-east or south the wind began to buffet us around and in some cases hit us full in the face as it raced aroun the mountains. After one day off it reverted to type and became a real pain in the arse.

We stopped in Kylesku at a tea-shop, but for some reason failed to have anything substantial. This would turn out to be an error as there was no other chance to eat until we reached Ullapool. Thankfully it was a relatively short day at only 71 miles or we would have been struggling by the end. After Kylesku was a long climb and some very inconsistent signposts, a theme of the day, before we dropped down to Loch Assynt. The frustrating thing today was that a couple of times I had to change down a gear after reaching the peak of a hill as going up I was quite sheltered from the wind, whereas at the top it would hit me full in the face and would become tougher to cycle through. The last ten miles became easier as we headed away from the wind again until the final few miles produced a pretty big climb.

This photo again could be from the previous day. It has almost certainly been taken because the hills behind look like massive tits, and we thought it would be funny etc, etc.....

What is funny is that Sam claims to be 'all man' but tends to stand like this all the time........

So yet again the day was blighted by high winds, but we were able to roll in relatively early at 6pm and book into the youth hostel. This may have been a mistake as a bunch of Dutch youths (basically all about 18-20 maybe, but a few didn't act that way) didn't aid our sleep and neither did the heat of the room. At least you get some great showers in youth hostels. We wandered out for some food at the Caley Inn where we were given 3 courses for a tenner. I've had better food, but then I have certainly had worse and at £10 for plenty of food I was quite happy. A couple of pints of Hebridean Gold from Isle of Skye as well and I was set for relaxing evening, or what was left of it.

One of the highlights of the day was Sam's fantastic tanline on his forehead. Having worn a bandana all of yesterday as we headed into the sun his face was mostly red, while his forehead was not. Classy.

Day 18 review

mileage = 71