Today was a day of extreme rain, extreme pain and it was only upon reflection (post 2 small Jura whiskies). balanced by the overall gain!
It started at 5 am when we were woken by the sound of heavy rain beating down upon the skylight window. That effectively set the standard for the day! At breakfast the sky was dark grey and the rain still beat down relentlessly, number one peoblem….Secondly whilst conversing at breakfast with two other females, we found out they were also doing the 500 but over 3 weeks ie with a day off in each location. All was ok until they told us they came from Lancashire and Kendal respectively, “lovely” we said, and where are you from they said, “Windsor” we said, – “Oh, Posh” they said…. Only if you are the queen we thought with a silent grrrr…My “get out of jail card” was telling them Myra was from Scotland….. They weren’t overly impressed, even when I tell them I was born in the SE of our capital city. However, my grrr could be harnessed later for motivation!
The 3rd of the” bad things come in threes”, was us taking what we thought the correct route out of town, ie the opposite to that which we came in. My excuse was lashing rain on the Garmin GPS was preventing me seeing what was actualy going on, plus the lack of any form of decent caffeine at breakfast and perhaps a leaa good meal than we were expecting meant that I wasnt fully functioning.
After 3 miles of a big up and too many downs when our brakes just weren’t working well in such extreme wet conditions, there was a light bulb moment. ” Is the sea really meant to be in our right I said ?! This prompted a relatively impressive emergency stop from Myra, who got off her bike, hopped into a phone box by the beach we were cycling along for shelter, checked out our positioning on the map on her phone and let out a loud huff. “CAROL we are going the wrong way!” “Oh really” I said in a casual, wet-through kind of way….Without another word we both turned around and headed back, by which time the water was running through waterproofs, bike tops and thermals as we headed back to and through Lochinver without another word, to find the right road to take us to Kylesku via the highly recommended coast route where we planned to have coffee.
The remainder of the morning was extremely grim, even in our books of grim conditions to do sport in. It was more than extremely wet, it was predominantly a single track road, the mist prevented any form of decent view, plua there were some extremely short, sharp gradients (some 1 in 10) and a cold wind. All the above combined to ensure we reached our 11.30 coffee stop 2 hours late at 1.30. Its fair to say we had little appreciation of the countryside we had cycled through and took zero pictures before arriving for our coffee/lunch break which was in a smart restaurant that was kind enough to let us in and then to not complain when we used their facilities to change into our remaining dey clothes, thereby ensuring we enjoyed lunch and were at least warm for the afternoons ride to Durness.
Post lunch, weather and temperaments improved with great views en route to Durness. The last roll down to the town is beautiful with a long gradual descent made even better on the day by the presence of sun. Moods were good as found our very lovely and somewhat special B & B, Aiden House. The house itself is beautiful (being constructed relatively recently of Scottish pine), as are the wonderful panoramic views it offers of the coast. Bedroom and bathroom were extremely comfortable and gave us a chance to get warm and dry out. Although late in arriving, we were delighted to have survived what had been a day of brutal cycling and Durness really is a very special place, making it all worthwhile.
Pub and food were a high priority but only after we had consumed the “emergency” Jura miniature we had picked up in Ullapool.
On balance, given conditions on the day, this was in many ways harder than our big climb of day 2. It wasn’t just a “dig deep” day, it was a kind of “turn yourself inside out” day where you are motivated by the concept of being considered “posh” whilat knowing you are doing the 500 in less time than some.
Alls well that ends well. Great evening food and the best nights sleep to date.
There and Back: 