Day 4 started by tricking us. Just like the Richmond Tigers it promised much, but gave little. We woke to sunshine filtering through the tree tops, which were waving gently to and fro in the breeze. Our trees must have been much shorter than all the other trees because as soon as we got back onto the road we were faced with a fair gale blowing straight up from the south.
Such a ferocious beast of a wind must surely have been called up by some other worldly creature, and looking to the loch, through the shadow of the pines.. there be monsters in this loch they call Ness?, or just the play of the white water and the mind of a man too eager to believe in such childish folly. Oh, but woe to those who can't believe, says I.
So up hill we walked, and down hill we actually had to pedal the wind was so strong. This continued until at lunch we pulled into the biggest town on the loch, Fort Augustus. Hot soup and lunch saw the spirits of the party buoyed, and by rounding the southern end of Loch Ness we had turned this terrible wind in our favour. Everything on the western side of Loch Ness looks a bit more the way I had expected it. On the east side the road was tiny and the cars were few, with tourism seeming to be a few years away. The West side gave us a 2 lane road and the traffic that you would expect at what has to be Scotland's most iconic landmark. Also on the west side the hills were more gentle. In the session after lunch we were averaging over 15km/p/h. We also started to see some other bike tourists for the first time, and they all seemed to be carrying a lot less than us.
Along the way we saw the ruins of Urquhart Castle, and even a tiny rainbow appeared over the loch.
That night was spent in the woods of Drumnadrochit, on the bank of a little burn. We were 'wild camping' just off a walking path that proved popular with the locals, but everyone that walked past that evening were very cheery with their hello's.
After a delicious curry and pasta dinner we went for a walk ourselves, and then I sat down by the stream to do the day's journal. It's light enough at night to read until 10.30 with no torch.
A brilliant morning session brought us into Inverness where we did a bit of shopping. Nadia was needing a new sleep mat after hers decided to un-attach itself from the inside out the night before. At each town we come to with an information centre, we try to get info on ferries from Shetland to Scandinavia, but nobody knows what's happening for sure.
The afternoon ride had us heading to Contin. It rained for a while, but not too much.
As we were passing through a small town, we passed a fella walking the other way, all kitted out in what looked like WW2 gear, and carrying a flag over his shoulder. Asking him of his journey, he told us he was hiking the entire John 'O Groats to Lands End track, to raise money for the 'Help For The Heroes' charity, which raises money for soldiers injured in action.
At Contin we had a beautiful campsite, and even felt energetic enough to throw the frisbee for a while. Gave the bikes a good looking over and discovered slight kinks in both our back wheels, which is fair enough with the weight we're putting on them.
On day 6 was weather was summer'ish for the first time, I was even riding in just my bike shorts! The tailwind continued and had us averaging 16km/p/h for the day. Thankfully we passed a town with a bike shop so I could get a spoke tightening tool. With this we decided to make today a shorter day, and stopping to ask a local lady (who has a daughter living in Caufield) about decent camping options, we pulled into the Glen Aldie forest at 4p.m, got camp set up, hooked the iPod up to the speakers, and got to work on the bikes.
This night and the night before was our soft introduction to midgees, the famous Scottish insect. There weren't that many of them, but they were very apt at being really annoying. Now the bite doesn't hurt much, and the resulting welt is insignificant and not overly itchy, but they're just so bloody annoying, with a tendency to fly straight into your open eye. Even in they're early season low numbers, it was enough to drive me to becoming the ultimate tourist, and donning a midgee net/hat combo - the ones that make us laugh at central Australia tourists.
Waking up in the tent the next morning was the start of our wettest morning yet. It rained solid for 2 hours whilst we moped about trying to hide everything under the pine trees. The weather plays such a big part in the mood of the camper, and the timing of the rain is a factor also - rain during the day, eh, not too bad. But rain when trying to pack up camp, ugh, horrible, everything's wet when you pack, and wet and cold that night when you set up camp again.
So we slowly packed up and I'd guess it was about 24 seconds after strapping the last bag to the bike, it stopped raining for the first time that day. It then didn't rain again until we arrived at camp and started to unpack and get camp ready. Nay bother this night though, because after 7 days of 'wild' camping we were treating ourselves to an official campground, with showers and laundry facilities. This campsite was on the southern end of Loch Shin in a town called Lairg. On the way to Lairg during the day we went through Tain and along the southern shore of the Firth of Dornoch, then followed the river Shin, including at a stop at the Falls of Shin.
Camping in a town for the first time also presented us with a chance to head to a pub. We didn't. We cooked and fell asleep.
Now at Loch Shin we are truly into northern Scotland, one of the remotest areas in Europe.
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