The penultimate day, the second to last one! The winds are howling out there, 20 mph with gusts in the 40s, but it’s supposed to be warmer 59 / 13. It’s going to be a hilly one today, Cornwall hilly. We have 11 hills to climb, all between 450 to 700 feet.
Kyle of Tongue
Breakfast views of Castle Varrich and the Kyle of Tongue…and the wind!
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| Climbing out of Tongue, the Kyle |
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| Looking out to sea as we climbed |
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| Across the Kyle |
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| As we climbed up on top |
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| Beautiful windy looking back |
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| Reedy waters |
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| Whoops, it’s windy! |
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| Beautiful in the sunshine |
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| Quiet and lovely |
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| Cattle grid - bumpy on the bike! |
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| Heading up into the windy, windy hills |
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| Even the trees are blown sideways! |
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| Midway cafe stop |
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| Thank goodness |
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| Last Scottish county |
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| First time we’ve seen a path up here |
The penultimate day - completo! 43 miles. Today was the hardest and at 3075 the highest day of the entire trip.
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| It was like Cornwall all over again, but higher and windier! |
11 hills, which we were good with, after 30 days we can climb hills!. But, then throw gale force winds on top of that. We climbed out of Tongue, which was supposed to be the hard part, and after that there was supposed to be a tailwind. Nope, the winds really started, from all the directions. We’d done our first hill and were climbing out of that and it got so windy, we had to get off. And there began the windying and walking part of the tour. We didn’t walk all the way to Thurso, but at times it felt like we were going to (and I wanted to!). Winds gusting 40-50 mph, blowing so hard they either blew us uphill with a tall wind (first time either of us have used brakes going uphill!), blew us across to the other lane with a sidewind (yep, into oncoming traffic) or stopped us completely with a headwind.
I came off again. Trying to stop when a wind gust was too strong, got my foot down and the wind just blew me over - into the road. We had to stop over and over because the wind was too strong - if a headwind we couldn’t keep going, a tailwind pushed us too fast, and a side wind pushed us over. It felt like we walked halfway to Thurso today, Steve thinks 10 miles.
Steve was wonderfully patient - helping me up when I fell down and waiting when I was too frightened to get back on the bike.
We have an all new appreciation for gorse…
Really, really nice to get here (although we wondered if we would at many points)! Best B&B so far and best dinner out of the whole trip - perfect, a treat after today’s adventures!
Evening in reverse order:
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| A wee dram - Tomatin |
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| Beef |
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| Fish |
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| In-between sorbet |
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| Pork starter |
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| Sea bass starter - this was the biggest piece of fish of the entire trip! |
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| Dark Island |
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| Orkney Gold from the Orkney Islands Brewery, could see those islands from our room |
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| Best room of the trip too! |
Pleased to have done it, didn’t think I could, but glad to be done with this day and in a lovely warm room instead of a howling gale. On to tomorrow and John O’Groats!
Congratulations! That sounds like a really tough day. Glad you were able to enjoy a nice dinner after and hope you are having a good nights sleep.
ReplyDeleteThat’s what’s needed at the end of a day like that!
DeleteWhat a day that was. I think it would have taxed even seasoned cyclists (I don’t consider myself one of those, I am thinking about people who have ridden all their lives and ride 1000’s of miles a year all year round, many don’t have cars they go pretty much everywhere on their bikes). Witnessed some true New England grit today, Katherine was awesome, at times it was all you could do to stand up never mind ride. We had I guess been lulled into a false sense of security in that the first few miles we were in trees which were providing shelter but once we were out of them …… the steep hills and the valleys and the heavy showers do all sorts of things to the wind blowing off the ocean so you never know where the next big gust is coming from! The winds did moderate a little in the afternoon and we were able to “get on with it” arriving about 3.30.
ReplyDeleteQuick update on the “sick tandem” (that would have been a handful today), apparently the rim landed in Inverness at about lunchtime and the wheel has been rebuilt so we will pick that up Monday AM and head for home. Seems like it’s a late summer in some parts of the UK but not here, tomorrow the 21 miles to the finish will be a “wear all the clothes you have” day I think, 6 C with a NE breeze straight from the artic. I plan to wear multiple cycling shirts, leggings, long fingered gloves and balaclava for the first time on the trip. Hell I carried them 1200 miles, be a shame not to use them.I think Katherine will be going for the “Michelin Man” look as every scrap of cloths in the panniers are brought into service. Bring it on ….
Cheers and congratulations to you both for making it through the toughest day. Nice that it was at the end when you are at your strongest. Not sure which is worse for cycling - wind or rain. Both are unpleasant. Glad to see you had a bit of sun. Those photos were stunning!
ReplyDeleteWind, wind is definitely worse!
DeleteWhew...what a day! No surprise, you conquered it. That has to feel good. I'm a fair weather rider and would have just gone down for breakfast, then lunch, then dinner and hope the wind was less the next day. Nicely done!
ReplyDeleteIt felt great at the end - very pleasantly surprised we made it!
ReplyDelete