Apologies for the delay, has been difficult finding time to blog.
We knew we had a long day today, but it proved longer than even we feared. We broke camp and departed the lovely bunchcrew site a little late at 9.30 and headed into inverness for breakfast and to meet my wife and son who were due to arrive there at 10. A gentle mostly flat ride saw us there in good time and we headed to the bus station. Unfortunately it soon became apparent that the coach was running late and they wouldn't arrive for at least another hour so we made for mcdonalds for breakfast. I enjoyed a lovely bacon roll, so nice in fact I thought I could eat another. So I did. Just as the second roll was devoured, a man (some would say heroin addict, drunk) fell right in front of the bikes we were watching through the window and proceeded to have a fit. Then another. So a frantic 999 call and some waiting around later and the day was even later as we set off. Its worth mentioning before leaving inverness, that it really is a nice town centre. The buildings are fantastic pieces of architecture and on the whole the inhabitants are genuinely friendly and welcoming.
After Inverness we headed for the quiet side of loch ness which involved quite a pleasent road and many good views of the loch. This was some what spoiled by the nagging voices in our heads that knew, they knew that sometime in the first 20 miles the road would point up and continue up until 1200 feet or so. Sure enough the road started to climb sometime before foyers, and the road to upper foyers (dont go lower!) Was walking material, very very steep. Once we had pushed our way to the top the gps registered 450 feet and we stopped for chips and supplies. The foyer falls are a short walk from here. We wrote our john o groats postcards, I ate a magnum! And we ordered our chips. We were informed of a small wait. We waited. And waited. After about 25 minutes the lovely lady from the cafe arrived.....and asked "what was it you wanted?" Oh. Dear. So after about an hour or so we set off to tackle the other 800 foot. If only it was a straight climb, but everynow and again an irritating descent scrubbed off 100 feet or so. We toiled for what seemed like, and probably was - hours. A relentless climb we finally rounded a corner at 1000 feet to see the top and decided to make it up there and stop for food and pictures. Another 15 minutes or so saw us reach the summit at 1295 feet. We stopped and contemplated picnic and pictures for all of 3 seconds before the howling southerly wind nearly threw us all down the mountainside and decided better of it. We headed down 200 foot or so before stopping at a dead calm loch tas for food. Feeling accomplished we pushed on to fort Augustus where we joined the canal path which made for interesting and good progress, if a little bumpy. Pleasant waves from passing boats and fellow cyclists. All in all - a nice interlude. So when we came off the path and the gps pointed out to continue on the other side we gladly obliged. The path began well and we thought we were in for a further treat. How wrong were we! The path (great glen way) soon degraded to, in the end, a path only suitable for mountain bikes, of the unloaded 'gnarly' variety. It was hard and slow going. Some real technical terrain. After 3 miles or so we decided to break for some 'dinner' from the panniers. Some slugs narrowly avoided being sat on And nourishment was had. After our food stop we pushed on until the path reached a tarmacked road. At this point it looked as if the great glen way would continue with a better quality path so we crossed a lock and carried on. Unfortunately after a half mile or so the mountain track returned and to make matters more interesting, rachels shoe cleat decided to lose a bolt some where and came loose making it impossible to clip in or out. One hasty repair involving the un used bolts from chris' shoe and we elected to double back (about 8pm by now) and join the A82. This, at this time of the evening was actually quote pleasant. Dead smooth tarmac we were able to get up a good speed. We made good rime for a while until a random 500 foot climb, but even this was dealt with ok. Eventually we found a way back on track and the gps informed us we had 10 miles left. Chris and i were spent, and rachel all but dead. We pressed on. And on. Finally we saw fort william and fist bumped the air in triumph. Before wearily cycling the final 2 miles to the glen Nevis campsite. 10:30 we rolled in and began to set camp. After a shower and unload, bed was seen at 12.15.
That was a long long day. 13 hours from camp to camp.
Miles cycled: 73.5
Biker nods reciprocated: 19
Times loo roll used in haste: many
Well done! Wow!
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