Tain to Inverness

In the youth hostel at Inverness tonight - a day later than planned. Yesterday saw us up and on our way by 9.30 am - early for us, as getting up, having breakfast and packing up the panniers and tent takes about 2 hours. Was a very clear night and very cold - the coldest night yet I think despite no wind chill factor. Weather improved as the day went on - we both now have bright red noses from the sun and wind. A lovely ride along back roads to Nigg and down to the pier to catch the ferry across to Cromarty. There was no one around to ask, just an empty slip way and Cromarty not very far away across the water, and a small note with the ferry phone number on - the latter not much use when you have a water logged phone - and no sign of a ferry anywhere. A man of few words, who lived in a cottage nearby replied 'June to October' to Roger's question re whether there was a ferry at all. Some rude words as you can imagine, especially as I'd even found a leaflet about the ferry a few days before to check if it would be running. Accepted the inevitable though and turned round to cycle back when an old man came trundling past in his invalid carriage(just where he was going who knows) and when asked about the ferry said that the bloke who ran it struggled to make any money out of it (I can see quite understand this) and was always in the pub, he lost his license and so there is no boat at the moment, but hopefully new boat (and presumably a new man and license) will start operating in June - well we think that's what we understood he said as he'd had a stroke, spoke slowly and in a Scottish accent. Nigg is the home of one of the largest dry docks in Europe - but it was deserted and up for sale as we cycled past. An interesting church, Nigg Old Church has a 9th Century engraved stone on display that was discovered in the grave yard- so why I went to look at this Roger attempted to mend my bike of a worrying grinding/catching noise - turned out my back wheel is out of line and catching the mudguard - needs the spokes tightening / untightening to line it all up again. The back brakes were catching so had to take these off for the time being until we can get them mended.

So at 1.30 pm we found ourselves on the dreaded A9 about 6 miles away from where we'd camped the night before - but having cycled about 25 miles to get there. Celebrated at a cafe with a toasted sandwich and a can of Coke, enjoying the warm sun with no wind (yes - warm and sun and no wind all together in one sentence in this blog). Then a 5 mile cycle down the A9 - not a pleasant ride when you have panniers on which make you wider than normal bikes and therefore quite vulnerable to being caught by passing very fast moving vehicles. At least it was Saturday so virtually no wagons. ON to some back roads after that which were much more enjoyable, with a stop at a Morrison's supermarket as we had no food at all left other than 4 bars and some freegon oats. Freegon for those who haven't come across this concept before is where there is a corner at a campsite or hostel where people leave things they don't need anymore - usually because they are going home or haven't room to carry it- usually this is food (Roger loves the bargain basin corner at Ikea, and the section at Asda where food near to its sell-by date is sold at a reduced price - so you can imagine how much he enjoys the freegon section at any hosteL etc! Doesn't have to be food though - Roger has acquired various things such as a tin of WD40 and a rear mudguard for a mountain bike......

We cycled past a campsite at Evanton, halfway down the Cromarty Firth - the sun was out, the cycling was good and all was well with the world - it was Roger's call to carry on to the next campsite at Dingwall, about 6 or 7 miles further south. Then we discovered the sting in the tail of the days cycling - a long gradual hill which Roger struggled on as his knee bothers him on uphills - his kneecap is not in the centre of his knee and the muscles are weaker on one side than the other - so as you bend your knee the kneecap tends to slide to one side of the groove rather than staying in the middle where it should be,so he's now back now to doing the exercises that Sarah the physiotherapist suggested he did (she did mention having the groove scraped out - an op that is relatively common for jack russel terriers and other similar sized dogs...). So a little black thunder cloud arrived at the top of the hill where i was enjoying the elevated view over the Cromarty Firth and the A9 bridge that goes over it towards Inverness.

There was a glorious mile or two then of fast downhill into Dingwall, and our first traffic lights since leaving Thurso. One more steep up and over the railway bridge and arrived at the campsite at 6 o'clock - 5 hrs 20 minutes of actual cycling, an average of 9.1 mph (our fastest average yet for a day - do remember we are fully laden though when you think this is slow) and 48 mies cycled in the day.

Woke up this morning to the sound of rain, always depressing. A slow start hoping to get a dryish tent to pack away - which we managed but about 20 to 11 before we got off. Changeable weather all day with rain on and off. Decided w would stop the Youth Hostel tonight, despite only being about 16 miles in total to cycle. We both wanted to have a look at Inverness rather than racing past which we would have had to do if we'd decided to go onto the next campsite - a further 25 miles or so on. Decided we would take the most direct route into Inverness - the A835 and then the dreaded A9 again. There is sometimes cycle lane, but it will suddenly stop and then start again a few miles further on. The A835 was a 2 and a half mile plod up hill - the sun came out as we were going up so by the top was feeling a bit like a volcano with air coming out of my vents -but then a big black cloud arrived and dumped lots of cold rainwater on me to cool me off very quickly. A relatively downhill cruise down the A9 into Inverness and down a grid locked main street full of sets of traffic lights.

The youth hostel is close to the centre - just up from Morrison's supermarket (the only bit of Inverness Roger and I know, having called in here with Elsie and Dean on our way to Iceland two years ago) - had no idea at the time that we were so close to the centre. Is a large characterless hostel but a large room to ourselves, not ensuite, £39 for the night- a large kitchen and comfy dining room and tv lounge. Spent the afternoon looking round Inverness, and at long last could sort a phone out. Neither of us had any idea that you could buy a phone for as cheap as £4.95 + £10 of calls- my (dead) phone was on contract and I could get a new phone on this but I want an I phone - one of the new ones due out later this month, so got a cheap phone and put my sim card out of my old phone into it - so same phone number as before - but unfortunately lost all my contact phone numbers and addresses - so when we get home in September will have to get the details of you all again.