Inverness to Aberdeen

It's been 4 days now since I put fingers to keyboards and wrote up the blog - to be honest it's been too cold to create the necessary impetus for me to do it, especially after some hard days cycling. Different tonight as we are back in a youth hostel here in Aberdeen, enjoying comfy chairs and some warmth - even if it's so busy we couldn't get a room together but are in different dorms.

Monday morning was spent cycling around Inverness to find a cycle shop that would look at my back wheel - I'd managed to split the rim, hence the noises etc that were being generated as I cycled along. We found a shop in the back streets, out of the main part of town that said they'd be able to do it that morning, so we spent an hour and a half in the cold sat on the bench opposite eating a pie and reading the newspaper while they put a new rim on the back wheel. No doubt due to the weight of the panniers on a wheel that is over 15 years old and done many thousands of miles of tough terrain and heavy weights.

A cold day, with a bitter north wind blowing. Was probably getting on to 1pm before we left Inverness - just as the skies darkened even more and pelted us with a mixture of sleet and hail. Visited the battle field at Culloden, about 4 miles out of Inverness - at the top of a long hill, and very cold indeed. As one Australian lass was heard to mutter in front of us 'F****** H*** it's snowing, I don't believe it!' This battle saw the death of many of the Clan chiefs as the Jacobites were trounced by the Government troops - there are wreaths and memorial stones for many of the Scottish clans dotted around the moorland where the battle took place. 25 miles later we'd had enough - it was freezing with showers of hail and sleet - so found the only camp site at Nairn (said to have the best climate in Scotland!!) which turned out to be a holiday camp, mainly for static caravans,one or two tourers and three tent pitches. I felt like an alien dropped into a different world waiting at the reception area to be dealt with - swimming pool, nightly entertainment, bingo about to start etc - none of which we wanted - but had to shell out £16.50 to pitch the tent for the night. When we discovered the pitch was a grotty grassless piece of scrubland wedged between the smelly skip, the washrooms and the access road I was even less amused... - but managed to get away from the smell and once inside the tent out of the wind didn't really matter where the camp site was

Sorry - not feeling very well so leaving this for now and will get back to it in the morning hopefully.