Monday 27 June 2011

Day 14, Lairg to Thurso

It's getting closer!

The forecast was good and so it turned out to be. After an early breakfast at the excellent Saddler's House B&B, I exited Lairg at 08:00.

Heading north, I noted yet again a pleasant tailwind ... it all helps! There was not much chance of getting lost as there was only one road north out of Lairg. The logging lorries that I'd been warned about were out in force and that was one vehicle I was more than happy to pull over for!

At Altnaharra (no more than a pub and a few houses) the NCN1 bears left and follows the 'A' road to Tongue. I really don't know why. I forked right and followed the single track road all the way to Bettyhill along Strath Naver. This is a truly beautiful ride with easy gradients, such as there are, and little traffic. It also stays much lower than the Tongue road, and makes the route a wee bit shorter. It also results in having to cycle less of the hilly, windy coastal road

Getting closer to the north east tip, more and more cyclists were evident, clearly doing the end-to-end the wrong way round. (German cyclists can always be recognised by their matching 5-piece Ortleib pannier sets, by the way).

Snack stop and lunch break were both provisioned from the food Anne left with me when we met up at Inverdruie/Slochd. The weather stayed fair with plenty of sun but was still a bit nippy. Jacket and windshell were worn all day. Two miles south of Bettyhill I ran into the coastal wind. This then acted on me as a head wind all the way along the north coast towards Thurso. This, combined with the repeating long, bottom-gear grinds up the switchback coastal road really dropped my speed. It was every bit as tough as Joe had warned! It was a great relief to roll down finally into Thurso to rendezvous with Anne for the last night's B&B before journey's end. After a, what can only be described as adequate, meal in Scrabster we had a stroll around the sea front in Thurso (don't book a week's holiday here) by which time I was ready for some shut-eye.

Only 22 miles left!

Stats for the day : 75.2 miles at 11.1 mph avg; 6hrs 46min in the saddle; 907m ascent

1 comment:

  1. Well done Phil! And commiserations to Joe. It has been good following the journey via your blog - thanks for keeping it up to date :) Can't believe you've nearly completed it already. A friend of mine is riding London to Paris on Friday - if you turn around in 22 miles time you could tag along! Cheers,.

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