Day 8, Saturday 24th June 2000
The Hills are Alive with the Sound of Rain
The breakfast room was resounding to the "Guten Morgen"s and heel clickings of our German friends. They may not have put down their towels on the sun loungers but they formed an impenetrable line at the hot food buffet. There is something quite natural about a table of Deutsche Folk guzzling on pork products.
The view from the window was not encouraging. The banks of black cloud were broken only by smaller banks of very dark grey clouds. The rain was falling, not hard but, in the way that looks like it will continue all day. We collected our bikes from the Internet office and saddled up for another bracing ride on the A9.
First stop Tescos for some drinks and, yes you guessed, energy bars. Unfortunately Tescos in Aviemore does not carry the range of the London stores so our pickings were slim. Next stop the sports shop. Dave thought he might find some gloves to keep his hands warm in the Scottish summer. The shop had nothing of interest.
The A9 had not changed since yesterday. The wind was against us but we looked forward to arriving in Inverness where the road would swing towards the West and then the wind would be almost on our backs.
20 miles of rain and wind. The only shelter we could find en route was an AA box and even this had one side kicked in but it was dry for a few moments.
The descent into Inverness would have been a blast but the heavy rain made it impossible to see anything at 30mph. Once out of the mountains the weather improved markedly and as we swung to the west the wind would be behind us at last.
The Ever Changing Wind
As we turned the corner we were dismayed to find that the wind was once again in our faces. The weather system once off the mountains was totally different.
We stopped for lunch somewhere between Inverness and Tain. The scottish equivalent of little chef did a good veggie lasagne and chips. They also sold a wierd set of confections. The most interesting one was a bar that was labelled "fat free" in big print and then "85% fat free" in small print. If you think that the fullest of full fat milk is only 5% fat then "85% fat free" should really read "3 times as fatty as full fat milk".
As we headed back into the wind I began to drift into a kind of madness. I believed I was Miguel Indurain and that Dave was Ullrich. I only had a 5 second lead in the tour and I had to keep him at bay if I was to hang on to my yellow jersey. This delusion kept me going for most of the afternoon.
Helmsdale At last
Our final Scottish hotel was the Belgrave Arms. An old fashioned kind of hotel with no pretensions. Our bikes were locked in the room behind the public bar with all the barrels. We dined in a large "lounge bar" which we shared with a party of noisy young girls, a party of walkers who I never heard utter a word to one another, and a lone hippy who sat at his table with an empty glass staring into thin air for an hour and half before disappearing.
By 9pm I was nodding off. It may have been the large Dalwhinnie or it may have been the arduous day's cycling whichever I was snoring before 9:30.
Stats
Dave 101 miles 8hrs 2mins 12.6 mph Average 33 mph Max
Will 99 miles 7hrs 57mins 12.5 mph average 34 mph max