Not the Portmahomack 400

[Exit Stage Left]

Although a bit of research reveals that Early Purple doesn't always have spotted leaves. Heather will be called on for a definitive judgement.

[billplumtree]

Day 9, Sun 29.  Durness - Tongue   33 miles

Got up with a sore throat this morning, not a good sign but probably due to the central heating.  Left at 9-ish, cold and windy (no! really?) from SW.  Climbed out of Durness, grovelled up Loch Orrible and freewheeled back down the other side, feeling a bit meh about it all.  Passed only the second cyclist I'd seen since Inverness along here, but neither of us appeared to be in the mood to stop and chat.  (The previous one, way back in Lochinver, did stop.  He was on a round the coast ride and had left Suffolk 25 days ago, camping all the way.  That stopped me wingeing about the big nasty blowy wind sending me into a B&B on the first weekend)

Windy:

Windier:

Windiest:

A long climb up from Loch Orrible, dropping back down to sea level, then a long, long and initially steep climb again didn't help my mood.  It was fantastically desolate over the top

at which point it lashed it down with rain and hail, and not a scrap of shelter for miles around.  The lashing continued all the way to Tongue, past the Youth Hostel (where I'd have booked in, had they been open.  Don't get me started on that closed-during-the-day policy) and into the village.  I was soaked, cold, fed up, and in mortal danger of drowning in the biggest downpour yet - there was no way I was either (a) going on, or (b) camping. 

The Tongue Hotel only had a superior room;  to their credit they did offer it to the bedraggled cyclist dripping all over their carpet, but it was way over the top.  The B&B round the corner, Tigh-nan-Ubhal, were even better.  Lovely people.  On their way out for a birthday celebration, the house was full, but just gave me the key to the static caravan round the back and told me to help myself.

So I did.  To a huge brand new 38' 6-berth, 2 bdrm, bathrm, gas ch, sat tv mansion   I loved it!  I'm a caravan convert - snug and warm and comfy, and it's kind of almost camping, isn't it?

(that there is the most northerly palm tree in the UK, apparently)

Passed the afternoon by drying out my kit, reading, and making sure there was nowt on any of the bazillion tv channels (there wasn't).  When the weather cleared later on I got out for an hours ride round about, and took a few pics to make up for not doing so earlier.

The Rabbit Islands, at the mouth of Tongue Bay:

Looking back S over Tongue to Ben Loyal:

Lovely serpentine causeway & bridge over the Kyle of Tongue (YH is the white building on the right):

Caisteal Bharraich / Castle Varrich:

[CrinklyLion]

I'm torn.  On the one hand I want the next episode.  Like, now.  Please.  But, on the other hand, it's nearly the end and that's no good......

[billplumtree]

I'm torn.  On the one hand I want the next episode.  Like, now.  Please.  But, on the other hand, it's nearly the end and that's no good......

The tension mounts.  Did I manage to just squeeze in before the 27 hour time limit or not...?

[Exit Stage Left]

Nobody ever likes the bleak landscape once they have left Hope behind, in pursuit of Tongue. But 'A'Mhoine', as it is called, is actually a Site of Special Scientific Interest.
http://gateway.snh.gov.uk/pls/portal/Sitelink.Show_Site_Document?p_pa_code=1&p_Doc_Type_ID=1

[Deano]

I'm looking forward to Struie Hill.  Will boab-levels of language be utilised?

[billplumtree]

I'm looking forward to Struie Hill.  Will boab-levels of language be utilised?

They were at the time, but that memory is, fortunately, fading rapidly.  The boab-word was also deployed many, many times on the subsequent atrocious 5-mile stretch of the A9.

[jogler]

I'm looking forward to Struie Hill.  Will boab-levels of language be utilised?

I had actually ascended it before I spotted it's name on the map I had been "advised" about this hill previously & had I realised what I was undertaking I most probably would have remained on the main road ,the long way to Alness.proof that ignorance is bliss

[billplumtree]

Day 10, Mon 30.  Tongue - Lairg   55 miles

Very comfy night, best yet by far.  I tell you, people, caravans are the future   Cracking breakfast too - excellent B&B, passed the Welcoming-to-a-wet-cyclist? test with flying colours.  Set off at 9-ish, in much better spirits than yesterday.  Added to which the wind had eased and turned more to the W (I was heading S), and it was dry and even sunny at times.

A steady, easy climb up to Loch Loyal, then a very pleasant run along the lochside.  At one point I just sat in the sun and lost track of the time, watching the sun play across the surface of the loch.

No need to pull off the single-track road either: I counted 3 cars in the first hour along this stretch.  After leaving the loch, another well-graded climb

over to Altnaharra for coffee at the hotel with a bunch of German motorcyclists.  Hence the sign:

According to the bar staff, they'd had 200 (TWO HUNDRED!) charity End-to-Enders in on the previous night.  This lot, I believe.  Glad I didn't do the longer route via Bettyhill, or I'd have met them head-on along Strathnaver.  Yes, I have to confess, I took a shortcut.  Organiser, I have sinned:  I deviated from the routesheet.  Well, I reckoned that I was out of time by around 207 hours at this point so I may as well be hung for a sheep as for a lamb...

Another long but easy, even pleasant climb follows Altnaharra, over to the Crask Inn, and I began to see groups of (in the main) lightly-loaded cyclists, lots of 'em.  These turned out to be supported end-to-enders, apparently - so I found out from the few solitary loaded tourers, who were the ones prepared to stop and say hello.  Lovely, easy, relaxed, friendly riding, often in warm sunshine - despite having left all the most spectacular scenery behind on the W coast, this was probably the best day of the trip overall.

And so to the Crask Inn, my first visit to this august institution.

What a place!   Packed with a bunch of a dozen or so walkers and a nine strong CTC-led end-to-end group, so I had a bit of a wait for my soup & butties.  But that was fine, I just soaked up the atmosphere (rather than the shower that had begun outside).

It's like an episode of Through the Keyhole -  "Now, on top of the 'till' we have a Russian doll, a tin of cigars, a pewter tankard, and a bottle of Skin So Soft.  Who could possibly live here...?"

Leaving the Crask after the shower had passed over, there followed a long, lazy downhill all the way to Lairg.  The vast open landscape, with huge skies, meant I could have fun watching the pockets of rain blow across from right to left and judge whether to try to outrun them or let them pass in front of me.

Lairg (pop. 700, according to Wikipedia) is a great sprawling metropolis.  At least that's what it felt like after the previous week.  Deano warned me about this, and he was dead right.  It just felt so - urban.  It's got a Spar AND a Mace AND a Costcutter, FFS!  And the campsite is overlooked by *shudder* houses...  It sounds daft now, but I really didn't like it at all.  So I consulted my map and found a more likely-looking site 7 miles further on at Invershin (yes, the pre-1984 map.  Yes, of course it's obvious now, thankyouverymuch).  What the hell, I was enjoying riding and it was only 4 o'clock, so off I went.

Nothing.  Nada.  Not a sausage.  Didn't matter though, it's a nice route down the former main road (I presume) along the River Shin, and there was an old bridge / new bridge situation at the end which was a bonus:

Then it pissed down, with no shelter around, and hey ho, I got soaked, having avoided it all day.  If I'd just stopped in Lairg as planned...  So I rode back up the same way to Lairg City, cursing myself for a while cos there was no-one else to blame.  But it stopped soon enough, and did very pretty things with the light

And I got to confuse 3 separate end-to-enders I spoke to in the 7 miles back, as to why I was heading north to the Lairgopolis if I'd come from Tongue

Pitched, showered, ate, sun came out and life was good again.  Hung my kit on a handy drying tree, which worked a treat.

A few midges around, so I tried Skin So Soft for the first time.  Seemed to work but, in my case at least, has been renamed Skin So Red.  Never mind, at least there were only 700 people around to witness my fluorescent face.

[Deano]

Lairg campsite is midge hell.  I arrived there at about 10 pm when I was riding back to Inverness after my end-to-end, and a bunch of ne'er-do-wells from Burnley or Blackburn or some other crack den had lit a massive fire to chase the evil things away.  The next morning, damp and grey and still, I set a record time in striking camp just to escape them.

[jogler]

Interesting that the hotel in Altnaharra is open(again).When I arrived there in May 2009 the sign on the door said "In Administration".
I actually rode up the hill from Altnaharra to the Crask which for me was quite an achievement*,particularly as I was loaded with luggage.I arrrived at The Crask at about 1530 hrs which was really too soon to stop for the day but I was so taken with the place I stopped anyway & stayed overnight.The ride down to Lairg the next morning was the perfect start to the day.Particularly with a Crask full monty fried breakfast on board.

* at the time my climbing ability inability was greater then than it is now

with apologies for the thread hi-jack,back to you BP

[billplumtree]

No apologies necessary at all.  The Crask must be a brilliant place to stay - I got my timing all wrong there.

[CrinklyLion]

....and there was an old bridge / new bridge situation at the end which was a bonus:

Thank you

[billplumtree]

Day 11, Tue 31.  Lairg - Beauly   50 miles

Camping is so much easier and more pleasant without the rain, innit?  Had the luxury of breakfast sitting outside the tent, in warm sunshine.  Off at 9.30.  Rain at 10.30, for that here-we-go-again feeling, but it passed fairly quickly and then stayed away for the rest of the day.  Which was nice.

Coffee in Bonar Bridge, next to Telford's rather splendid edifice - none of yer monstrous concrete carbuncles here.

They don't write plaques like that any more, do they?  "TRAVELLER!  STOP and Read with GRATITUDE."

Over the bridge, then shortly up Struie Hill.  'nuff said.  The payoff for that, which (now, at this distance, makes it worth it) was this picture-perfect scene, on the way over towards Alness:

And I'd take half a dozen ascents of Struie Hill over the death-defying 5-mile 'sprint' down the A9 to the Dingwall turnoff.  Full of traffic like this

and all you can do is hope that none of the appallingly-close overtakes has your name on it.  No doubt the previous week or so's isolation and quiet roads made it seem worse, but it was a hell of a relief to get off that stretch and escape to Dingwall.

Where - O joy of joys - there is a staffed railway station (and, by-the-by, the first traffic light I'd seen since leaving Inverness).  I had Veronique booked on a train from Inverness on Friday, but - this being Tuesday - I'd completed the event 3 days early (must be a record, surely?), so wanted to change the booking to Wednesday.  Unfortunately, it turned out that there were *drum roll* 200 charity end-to-enders all trying to get back home at just this time...

We did, finally, find her a space on the 0647 - a tad early, but it'll do fine.  Continued on a pleasant enough, and flat, road to Beauly, in warm sunshine.  In fact, this stretch was the only time of the whole trip when I felt over-dressed and a bit too warm, in the (usual) shorts/legwarmers/kneewarmers & l/s heavy wool jersey.  Back to the first-night campsite, to a cheerful cry of "Hello again!  Have ye no' been blown awa'?!"  Pitch, shower, and suitable celebration.

[jogler]

The Crask was,together with the journey from Bettyhill down the Strathnaver valley, a contender for highlight-of-the journey.
As you say, sharing that road with 200 other cyclists would have been "interesting".

When I do my next E2E in the opposite direction,south to north, the route will include a reprise of this experience.

[phil d]

Interesting that the hotel in Altnaharra is open(again).When I arrived there in May 2009 the sign on the door said "In Administration".

Mrs D and I stayed there in May 2004, and there were new owners.  From what I can tell it's had at least two since then.

I have a virtually identical "Lammen auf der strasse" photo in my library.  We were stopped in a layby (twixt Altnaharra and Crask) while I checked the map to see where I was to be dropped off for a walk over Ben Klibreck back to Altnaharra.  Looked up, saw the sign and started to wonder where the hell we were!

[billplumtree]

Day 12, Wed 1.  Beauly - Inverness ( - home)

4am alarm!  At least it was light.  Quick breakfast, off by 5, into Inverness at 6.  Still three-quarters asleep, mainlining coffee in McDonalds.  Sleepy and happy.  Good trip, finished in true Audax style.

FIN

[jogler]

A terrific write-up BP  .Thoroughly enjoyed reading that.

[phil d]

Coffee in Bonar Bridge, next to Telford's rather splendid edifice - none of yer monstrous concrete carbuncles here.

That surely is not Telford vintage?  

A great report, BP - thanks.  Brought back many happy memories of that part of the world, and whet my appetite to go back there soon.

[Exit Stage Left]

You could probably have got to Carbisdale Youth Hostel from Invershin, it always adds a surreal touch to any holiday. Carbisdale Castle youth hostel, Sutherland | Travel | guardian.co.uk
Heather confirms it's Northern Marsh Orchid.

[billplumtree]

That surely is not Telford vintage?  

Yep.  Bottom of the plaque:  finished Nov 1812, Thomas Telford architect.  Cast in stone 

[billplumtree]

You could probably have got to Carbisdale Youth Hostel from Invershin, it always adds a surreal touch to any holiday.

Yeah, I'd have liked to have done that, it's been on my list for ages.  And there's a handy bikes-allowed footbridge across the river to it  (well, handy-ish, once you take the steps into account...).  Unfortunately, the CTC group at the Crask said they were due to stay there the previous night but it was closed for repairs to water damage.

Heather confirms it's Northern Marsh Orchid.

Ta for that.  I've learned summat new

[billplumtree]

....and there was an old bridge / new bridge situation at the end which was a bonus:

Thank you

Pleasure, m'dear.  Your tastes run to old stone then, rather than cast iron or prestressed concrete?  I'd hoped to get one of the Kessock Bridge an'all, to complete the spectrum, but I'm afraid a 4am alarm was quite early enough ta very much. 

[Exit Stage Left]

This is the original Telford Bridge.



There was another one.


I don't know when they built the current one.

[perpetual dan]

Thanks, that's really inspiring. There's places names there that I know from stories of family holidays before I remember.