Henrikdoc

We sort of anticipated a day that would not be as sunny as the last 3 weeks on our adventure, so put on some extra layers – note the overshoes !

Initial gentle rolling hills (always gradually uphill of course) became drizzly moorland and then less gradual, more acute climbs.

This was testing our mettle. Spin spin spin . At points I’m sure I was peddling but not actually moving
as the wind against was so strong.

All the way past another ski centre and onto Tomintoul where we stopped off for a warming coffee and the usual honey sandwich / bagel. The other diners in the “hotel” must have thought “ mad English cycling in this weather” . We didn’t feel it proper to correct their thoughts by highlighting that one of us was of Lebanese and the other of German background 🤣

-nearly took the whiskey with us though –

Another windy, drizzly (the type that drenches you) hour later we had joined Carol and Jill at the lunch stop rendezvous- the Highland Heritage Centre cafe/ restaurant housed in two railway carriages.
An opportunity too good to let pass without indulging in some mid cycle recovery food (we had covered 60 km by then)- in my case it was vegetable and rice soup and apple and cinnamon crumble pizza – yes, pizza

After that it was all downhill – well almost, for 40 km, although the drizzle became rain, the wind that had been a Northerly against us became a Northerly that swirled as well💨🌬💨🌬as we made our way across the exposed landscape on leaving the Cairngorms and entering Speyside

Of course as soon as we got to Nairn the rain stopped ! Found the campsite nestled amongst pine trees and had a long hot shower to warm up as quickly as possible.

Rest day tomorrow and then only 2 more days in the saddle. Can’t believe we’re actuallly 10 miles from Inverness AND have cycled here! Bonkers .

Eat , drink, peddle, eat some more, sleep, eat …..