Day 11 - john o groats to wick & inverness

Bit grey and breezy this morning and unfortunately blowing from the south east. Bit of a drag all the way to wick. Noting particular to note other than greyness. Faff in wick finding boxes for the bikes but pets at home and homebase had enough for two bikes. I cant believe i went in a set shop. Yuck. Scabbers and i have decided to chance it on the train from inverness with bikes in bin bags. Time will tell. Lunch was morags monster burgers. Curry is now calling in inverness as this train journey from wick is taking forever. 20 miles. 11mph. Total holiday distance of 328 miles which is not bad considering some of the out of the way places we have been.

Day 10 - stromness to john o groats

Nice sunny morning and surprisingly non whisky heads as we got onto the scrabster ferry. Battered maps bar in thurso and then lunch at the flagstone harbour of castletown. Good exhibition there. Views from dunnet head were good and we could see cape wrath. Took some coastal lanes and tracks to gills bay before heading upto duncansby head. Jog was rubbish as ever and felt particularly empty. Campsite is most expensive too. 300 miles passed today. 45 miles 12mph

Day 9 - rackwick to stromness

Cold last night so we spent much of it an the bothy fire with hip flasks chatting to a hero kiwi. Not to much cycling today as north hoy had to be explored. Another lovely warm morning with views back onto the scottish mainland. The others went off to the old man and i climbed ward hill. The highest in orkney. Ive been thinking about it since i first came here 10 years ago. Lower slopes were a heathery nightmare but once i gained the ridge it was great. Weird finding a fulmar colony on a hill! Rain came on as i headed down but it was clear while i was at the top and the 360 view was awesome. I even say some mountain hares. The others saw some climbers on the old man and one fell off onto his rope. Back in stromness now and had some great fash and chaps. In the whisky heritage bar now and waiting for some shetland sessions. 8 miles only on the bike

Day 8 - stromness to rackwick

Chilled out start in a warm sunny stromness. Cycled round to houton for the south hoy ferry. Had a picnic on deck but it had cooled down and greyed up by the time we reached lyness. Dodged some major rain in the naval museum before setting out in a less significant shower. Lost scabbington cycling up the east coast of hoy. He was faffing and missed a turning. Only found him when we got to the bothy at rackwick. Birds and scenery here as epic as always. 26 miles 10mph

Day 7 - tongue to stromness

Bit of a beach fire whisky session last night with a swiss cyclist and a fat german. At least the german produced a full bottle of talisker that we seriously dented. Fairly relaxed start with lovely campsite running couple helping and fueled by porridge we set off for bettyhill. The nice southerly wind disappeared to leave a chill north easterly. After lunch it became apparent we needed to push on to make the ferry. First real soaking saw us to dounreay and the drag continued to thurso. It became a real push. Good ferry ride to orkney and stromness is as scenic as ever. 53 miles 11mph.

Day 6 - cape wrath to tongue

Very early start today to get off the cape wrath before the navy started bombing it. Beautiful sunny morning and the road back to the kyle was glorious. Big breakfast in durness and a visit to smoo caves and comedy camp tour guide. We eventually got going again along the spectacular coast. A rain shower got us at the head of loch eribol and we had a few more before tongue. Took the old road round the kyle of tongue to position ourselves for the campsite only to find it had closed years ago. Ended up with another 6 miles to a camp site. A good day. 57 miles 10mph

Day 5 - scourie to cape wrath

An early start today to get to durness in time for the ferry across the kyle. Ride out of scourie was on sweeping roads with steady inclines. Nice but nothing spectacular. After kinlochbervie it became single track again and brilliant. We swept down into the durness valley with great views of foinaven and the sun came out for the first time in a few days. Brilliant. Ferry over to the cape was no problem and the road to the lighthouse was great. Again could see the outer hebs. Down at the bothy i had a very quick and freezing dip in the sea and we then spent nearly 2 hours cutting up driftwood for the fire. Tea was good, sunset was ace and fire is still going. Excellent day. Well see whether the ghost of the woman who died here 5 years ago haunts us tonight. Spooky. 41miles 10mph

Day 4 - clachtoll to scourie

Well it was pretty windy last night but no more tent collapses although bad sleep all round. Big morning of faff and a large fry up meant we got away at 11 despite best intentions. Wind wasnt as bad as expected so that helped. Road to drumbeg was steep in places but nothing too bad. Lunch was some soup at the hotel before we continued to the harder part of the route. The 25% hill was pretty mean but we all made it. On the descent i rounded a wooded corner and was confronted by a big stag. It bounded off but we managed to see it down below us and again when it crossed the road. A pretty energy sapping bit of road but well worth it. From hitting the main road the rest of the ride was downwind an nice but not outstanding. 29 miles 9mph average

Day 2 - achiltibuie to clachtoll

Today started grey showery and windy. We dodged the showers to make breakfast and decamp. Nice ride round altandu circuit until we started heading east into the wind. Bit nasty particularly as we headed uphill towards lochinver. Lovely road from there. Tea was smoked salmon bits pasta from achiltibuie smokery. Great. Some school kids got blown out of their tents as the wind built and ed enjoyed some schadenfreude. 10 mins later justice was served as his tent blew down. Had some help from other campers to move and repitch before the helping take down a huge family tent that was about to take flight. All very exciting. Picture link below should show our pitch in the lee of a static caravan. Tomorrow looks horrific in this wind. 28 miles 11 mph total 55. Man its windy

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Day 1 - ullapool to achiltibuie

Limited sleeper faff last night. Scabbers and i passed time in preston at the dodgy old dog inn. Brilliant scally pub and complete with collapsing chairs. Sleeper train was fine and another good taxi ride by www.taxi2.com. Weather was blue sky with few clouds and a strong easterly wind. Views from ullapool were great and got better as we headed out. some tough work into the wind before we left the main road and headed west. From here we were cruising along at 30mph with the wind behind with awesome views. We needed bigger gears. Stopped at stac pollaidh and headed up. Went up to the eastern summit and then traversed to the higher western one. A good bit of scrambling and one hairy move got us to the summit with amazing 360 views. We could see the sutherland mountains, harris and even the black cuillin. Photo below shows the view west from the central col. Amazing mountain. More great lochside riding before grub at the summer isles hotel. Couldnt ask for a better day. 27 miles ave speed 17mph

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Test 2009

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