It’s Steve’s birthday today! I asked him what he wanted to do for his birthday? ‘I think we’ll go for a pedal, aye?’
Off to Tongue today, which isn’t quite on the North Coast, but is on the water. Didn’t see much of Lairg last night, as we were pretty focused on getting here. Took us till 6:30 to get to Lairg at our new average speed of 8.6, to the Lairg Highland Hotel, so we were starting to worry about it getting dark. Lots of places we’ve gone through are having trouble getting staff in the pubs, restaurants and hotels, same here. We had a nice dinner though, venison roast - everything else on the menu was battered!
Started to discuss the difference between riding a tandem and riding a solo bike yesterday. My wobbling improved over the course of the day and I stopped heading for curbs and ditches quite so frequently - at the beginning where my eyes went, so did the bike! I can remember being on motorbike trips and talking with women riders (they drove their own motorbikes) and they’d ask me if I was happy being ‘just’ a pillion. Let me think - I get chauffeured around Europe, watching gorgeous scenery pass by, taking my photographs and don’t have to watch the road - happy as a clam back there! Similar road focus with the solo bike, spent all my time looking at the road rather than the scenery! Being able to ride the solo bike better will be a good skill to have, but would rather look at the scenery and take pictures!
No tracks or paths or cow paths (yes, we rode down one of those yesterday!) today will be all road, all day!
Let’s see if we can get that speed up today!
We went to one of the remotest parts of Scotland today, along the A836 from Lairg to Tongue. A roads* are supposed to be major roads, but not motorways. The A836 is a major road, I think because it’s the only road, however, it is a single lane road with passing places. There was traffic, cars, lorries, RVs, but it was infrequent. There was road hogging bus, who let him on?! Mostly it was clear and quiet, we even got to ride side-by-side quite often which was nice.
The scenery throughout the day was staggering and desolate. There was nothing out there, for 37 miles, but us. We were surrounded by hills, mountains, valleys and the odd loch for as far as you could see. The views just went on and on and on. The only humanity was a small hamlet of about 5 houses, a boarded up house and a derelict one. It was almost eerie it was so empty, but beautiful.
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| Today’s route |
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| Another favourite photo, love the fall colours! |
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| Still pedalling |
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| More golden |
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| Peat bogs everywhere |
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| The remotest pub in the U.K., they weren’t open |
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| Lunch spot |
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| Loving the colours |
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| So glad we’re not climbing those! |
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| The mountains, the hills, the foliage - autumn |
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| It’s an A road, but not as we know it - one lane! |
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| Birthday boy, enjoying his pedal |
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| Peaks and foliage |
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| Always gotta take a bike picture! |
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| Loch Loyal |
Farm of the day - peat farm
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| Pedalling break by Loch Loyal |
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| Misty mountains in the distance |
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| The valley just before the Kyle, first fields we’ve seen today |
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| The Kyle of Tongue |
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| The Heather is still blooming |
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| Medicinal and shelter from the rain lunch! |
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| Tomantoul |
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| Happy Birthday! |
Dropped down into Tongue, which is alongside the Kyle of Tongue. The view from the top was so good that we made a last stop for photos. Google cycling maps took us down a track and unfortunately I fell. Had a ‘medicinal’ lunch, a lovely warm room and another Scottish salmon dinner. Hoping to be back in pedalling shape tomorrow for a ‘Cornwall day’ in Scotland!
*A-Roads
A road whose number is prefixed with an 'A'. These were originally intended to be the major routes, but because of inconsistent upgrades and policies, an A-road can now vary from a single-track mountain road in Wales to a grade-separated motorway standard eight lane dual carriageway like the A2 in Kent.
B-Roads
A second-class road whose number is prefixed with a 'B'. Less wide-ranging than other classes of road, B-roads tend to be either minor country roads connecting villages, or town and city streets. B-road numbers are only ever three or four digits long.
C-Road
A road whose number is prefixed with a C. C-roads are not signposted, nor are the road numbers shown on maps: they are reference numbers used by the government bodies that maintain roads. Some also use D-roads and U-roads.
Another great day in Northern Scotland and a great way to start your 64th trip around the sun, thanks for the birthday wishes. Today has been like being on another planet, you know where the crew of the Enterprise are beamed down onto an uninhabited planet, shrouded in mist, with weird vegetation. Thankfully no hostile monsters were around!!
ReplyDeleteNot withstanding the “wee tumble” Katherine did great on her second day on a solo bike. She would ride up alongside me and “half wheel me” Cyclists will know this is a technique for upping the pace “you can go a tad faster” was a phrase I heard more than once today!! Loosely translated that means “get a move on!”.
Tomorrow is the last full day, the profile looks a little “Cornwallesk” and it might get a bit damp. On the upside I think we will have a tail wind😁. The bike hire place said they will collect their bikes from Lands End for a reasonable fee so that will save us riding to Wick at the end of it on Saturday and then collecting the bikes with the van on Monday. Maybe the cycling gods are back with us. We should be homeward bound on Monday morning from Inverness complete with Tandem (which may or may not be fixed as it takes 48 hrs rather than 24 hours for UPS to get a parcel to Inverness cos it’s “so far North!!”). It’s not over till the fat lady sings but I hear her clearing her throat. What will we do next???
Can't believe you were in shorts, Steve! Just saw this morning from a comedian here, "if you wear shorts and a parka at the same time, you must be from New England". Soon enough, right? Can't wait to see you two back here shortly and hear all about the trip. Enjoy the last couple of days!
ReplyDeleteSo sad the pub was closed. Misty mountains and the loch are some spectacular views! Makes all those pedals worth it. Love that Katherine is urging you to pedal a bit faster.
ReplyDeleteThe remotest pub - closed! But to be fair, we would have only had coffees…
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