The BIG Cycle Challenge: 08/24/13

Day 13, Inverness to Crask, the penultimate day!

The Marshall’s woke up feeling strong, we are really growing into this event just as it is ending! Real sense of we can do this and that each mile and hill is making us stronger. In fact each mile and hill is certainly making the smell from my cycling shoes stronger! Others are tiring, slowing down and looking forward to the end, that’s not what’s happening with us. As a result we saw a lot more of the rest of the group today, as we are travelling closer to them as we speed up.

The day was uneventful, lots of time to think and relax, this is big country up here, wild, beautiful and with lots of sky. Lots of moorland, heather, deer, grouse and bloody midges! So there are some drawbacks to this part of the world. The countryside is very much like the end scene of Skyfall, a James Bond movie for those of you who are fans. Thinking about it we did actually see a silver Aston Martin DB5 a couple of days ago, so maybe he’s in town?

We progressed northwards and said hello to any locals we saw, they of course all know what we are doing and wish us well with comments like ‘not far now’ or ‘it’s just over that wee hill’ and we pedal on. Lunch was by the side of a loch in a pub, full of character, the food not. However it was enough to help us up some steep hills and onwards to the end of the day. Speaking of ends, apparently there is a club you can join, called the ‘End to Enders’, for people who have made it from one end of GB to the other. Cool.

For me the miles seem easy apart from the effect it is having on my rear end. Despite all sorts of cream all sorts of different cycling positions, a double padding strategy and standing up a lot, it is still a big pain in the bum! Much complaining during the day went on, and on, and I was glad to finish for this reason alone.

When we arrived at our B&B, I showed Michaela the said bodily part (we have this type of relationship you see) and she said ‘wow you look like a Howler monkey!’ I took this to mean that it was a little red, so more cream and sleeping face down again tonight I guess…

The evening was an evening we will never forget, we stayed in a small B&B run my Mandy and her husband, they cooked us dinner and had provided a plentiful supply of red wine. We were there with Team Wales, a lovely couple from Wales, Clare and Martin, who were great fun. The location was overlooking a deer farm, with moorland and hills in the distance. We watched through the window, the deer roaming across the moorland, and Allen, Mandy’s husband who works on the estate (120,000 acres) told us about the deer, the wildlife the behaviour of these magnificent animals as the show outside continued outside in full HD. Herds of them. It turns out he is a full and proper Gillie, a Scots term for man who acts as an attendant on fishing, hunting or deer stalking expeditions. I have never met one before. The conversation ranged from animals to the benefits (or not) of the proposal to put 38 wind turbines in the valley. Anyway a memorable evening with genuinely interesting people who have chosen this lifestyle to be at one with nature and to avoid the rat race.

So here we are, in the Highlands, with just 70 odd miles to go and then Vera (sat nav) with not be able to provide us with any more purple line to follow. Rain is forecast, but who cares, we’re still going to enjoy it. Not sure what we will feel when we get there, but one thing is sure - my butt will be relieved!

The start position, the wobbly footbridge in Inverness