While camping in the garden of the Crask Inn (Scotlands most remote pub) we decided to indulge in a local beer, as far as the beer goes it was very average. However, the company and characters that were staying that night, were absolutely on point!! We met an elderly couple, David and his wife (we never did catch her name) David LOVED to talk. But, by God did he have some fascinating stories to tell. He jas not only raised copious amounts of money for charity, but he had also done John O Groats to Lands End, both ways. David must have been early into his 70s and as a retirement gift to himself, he decided he would do Lands End to John O Groats. (The first time around) since then he had done John O Groats to Lands End, West Coast 500 and a self-made challenge called David Cycles 5 Cities. David is an incredible man and loved raising money for charity. He loved we were doing our ride self supported and that the weather was so bad, he donated £10 towards both our causes.
The next morning we awoke to extremely bad visibility due to rain, that light fine rain and the classic... Heaving rain. Needless to say, it was difficult getting out of our tents that morning.
Eventually, we made it out of our pits and begin to pack up. It's a horrible thing to pack up a wet tent while getting your dry stuff wet in the process. Finally, we were ready to get going again. We said our goodbye and thank you and headed off down the road. We were promised that from Crask all the way to Lairg the road was downhill. They were not wrong!! The rain calmed down and the visibility went from awful to incredible. The rest of that road was beautiful to coast down and take in the scenic views.
We stopped at the bottom of the never-ending down the hill to get some breakfast. You know, after all that hard work we deserved a break! We stopped at a place called The Pier. Great food and another stunning view. At this point, my knee had started to swell up again and cause me some agro. So I did what any man would, take pain killers and crack on! When we went up to pay for our breakfast, Becky got talking to two Americans who were on a fishing holiday. They were fascinated about our trip, so much so, they donated £20 towards our chosen charities and wishes us luck along the way.
Unfortunately, there isn't much more to tell you all about the second day. The rain got much worse and soaked us to the bone. I couldn't take photos and towards the end of the day, I couldn't even cycle. My knee has decided to give up on everything, cycling, walking and simply existing!
One of the few things I can highlight of day two is that Becky fell off her bike... TWICE!! An only one of those times was my fault apparently... I will happily take the blame like the good boyfriend that I am... Honest.
Another awesome thing to have happened was that we managed to get ourselves into a race with a heard of sheep!! Needless to say, we won and it was AWESOME. Well worth the effort (and surprisingly sheep can be very fast) while we are on the subject of sheep, we cycled past a rural house that looked as if it was getting attacked by the impending doom of a zombie sheep apocalypse. We managed to time the passing just so perfectly that a seemingly drunk elderly man came out and shouted in a very thick Scottish accent "GET OFF ME LAND, GET OFF WITH YEE"
Upon arriving in Inverness we were so wet and hungry, we have to call it a day. While we were feeding our legs, the heavens opened once more and drenched everyone and everything. So we decided then that we would get a cheap room somewhere, warm up and try and dry some stuff.
Day 3:
Day 3 started with incredible pain and inflammation in my left knee. It was so fat, I couldn't walk on it properly. Not only that, you couldn't actually see the knee definition. It was just one long, thick leg, like an elephant. You can hardly make out the bend. Just a peg that seems to work.
As we packed up and ventured out to get some food before hitting the road. I decided it would be sensible to get some anti-inflammatory stuff and knee support to help with the short day ahead. I managed to find something suitable and popped it on at breakfast. The first 5miles I was in a solid amount of pain, so much so I was thinking I need a day to rest it. Thankfully, after a short while, my knee got into the groove of things.
We headed down the A82 past Loch Ness to Fort Agustus to avoid some big hills so that I wouldn't snap a knee like a cracker. But this meant we were on one of the busy roads heading too and from Inverness. Needless to say, it started raining again half way down Loch Ness making visibility very low with no chance of seeing Nessie the localness monster. We must have been on the A82 for about 2 and a half hours. Those 2 and a half hours where incredibly stressful with traffic and coaches overtaking.
When we finally arrived in Fort Augustus we were created by a mass downpour and some chilly winds. But we found a pub to seek shelter and get some hot food in us. While in the pub I noticed we whereby a canal. Canals mean towpaths, towpath's mean no traffic, no traffic means smiles all round!! So we finished up our food as the coach of Chinese tourists arrived. We put on our freezing cold and wet cycling jackets and made our way to the wintery weathers outside.
The towpath went from awesome to amazing, the sky brightened up, the ground was smooth and the pace picked up too. My knee wasn't even giving me Jip at this point either! The towpath wasn't that long but it did lead onto the national cycle path 78 that took us down a beautiful road (similar to the Wirral Way) and ran parallel to Loch Lochy... I kid you not, the lock is called Loch Lochy!! That's just lazy naming.
As we got to the end of the stunning road we where a little lost to where we were going, in all my confusion I managed to turn my bike around, go to clip out my pedals and end up pulling myself down to the ground... Honestly, the whole scenario defies physics!! I personally think Becky pushed me with her mind games!! Just saying.
The next part of the cycle path was some hardcore off-roading, it started off fun and then turned into gravel hills. My knees were not happy about this. The gravel was either fine to disable stuff or it was, what can only be described as boulders! Massive cliff faced boulders. It was quite fun going down pretending to be one of those red bull racers who literally cycle down cliffs! But the going back uphill sucked so much by the end of it, everything hurt.
After a long decade, we made it back to the road and the pace could pick up again. Both our backs, shoulders, arms, necks and faces ached. I started stretching while riding. Imagine seeing a cyclist riding past doing yoga... That was me! Cycling yoga, I'm on to something. Downwards facing the dog and all that.
We finally arrived at Fort William and at my most favourite campsite, Glen Nevis campsite. We quickly set up our soaking wet tents and took it in turns to guard our stuff and get a hot shower. Jesus that shower was amazing!! So good I got up at 04:30 this morning to get another one!
That night we went to the sites restaurant bar and had some food and some beers! I even tried a few whiskies... I can't even remember the name of the whisky I tried, but it was one from the highlands we cycled past the distillery.
Afterwards, we walk back to do some laundry (the smell of fresh clothes is incredible) and headed to bed.
This morning we woke to stunning views and some hints of sunshine! Loch Lomond here we come!! (Knees, please work with me today)
