Arrived in Inverness on time, but tired after a terrible nights sleep on our moving beds. Thomas has now completed changed his opinion of sleeper trains from something exciting to "I never want to go on a sleeper train again!"
Gears on my bike were not running very well (that'll teach me to fit new cables the weekend before we are due to set off). Local shop Highland Bikes were very helpful and indexed the gears on both bikes at the extortionate price of £2 towards their tea kitty! Amazing service!
After a full English breakfast at the aptly named Feeding Station, we drag ourselves up the hill out of Inverness onto to cycle route 1.
Soon after we are rolling along quiet cycle tracks through parks and beautiful woodlands. Further on the route follows some amazing coast roads. We stopped to visit the fascinating Fort George, a massive fort built by the English to subdue the Scots after the battle of Culloden.
Leaving Fort George, Thomas finds he's left his cycle gloves 2 miles back when we stopped for a break - just what we needed, an extra 4 miles added to the route to fetch the gloves!
The rest of the route ran along route 1 through beautiful rolling countryside with fields full of corn or cattle. We had the roads virtually to ourselves with no traffic and such a contrast with the busy south of England.
About 10 miles from out destination Elgin Thomas loses control of his bike, crashes into me and I'm knocked off and we both end up in a tangled heap of bikes and limbs on the roadside. Slowly extracting ourselves and the bikes, we find we have only suffered minor cuts and bruises. The handle bars on my bike are twisted round at an odd angle and one of the brake blocks on Thomas' jammed onto the wheel. Both were quickly put right and two shaken, but relieved cyclists set off again. Last time I cycle alongside Thomas - going to stay well away from him in future!
After getting soaked in a heavy shower, we limp slowly into Elgin, tired and wet.
The B&B was really great and after a hearty meal at a nearby Italian restaurant we fell into bed and slept like babies.
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