Distance: 65.5 miles / 105.4 km
Elevation: 2,927 feet / 892 m
Time: 7 hours and 47 minutes (4 hours and 27 minutes cycling)
This morning’s forecast was not that great. When I got up it was raining quite a bit! In a lot of ways this suited me well though; I’d had more than my fair share of strong beers last night and I was feeling a bit delicate.
When I did finally get going, I rode for a little while with a cyclist riding LE-JOG. His destination tonight was Muir of Ord – not too far from Inverness (my destination for tonight). As well as his supplies, he was also carrying all his camping gear – so big respect to him! As a result, he was a bit slower than I was. He also had a gravel bike and was going to cycle the Great Glen Way. I said my goodbyes to him when our paths diverged.
View of Ben Nevis from Spean Bridge
Even more rain
The weather was atrocious not too far after Spean Bridge. Luckily for me there were signs for a café 400m ahead when it was at its worst. It turned out this was on a barge – on a lock connecting the lochs. It even did cask beer – bonus. Whilst it wasn’t the best beer I’ve ever tasted, nor food I’d ever eaten, it was keeping me warm and dry.
Lasagne from the Eagle Barge Inn (Laggan Locks)
By complete coincidence, the guy I had met earlier on in the day made the same decision. The only difference was that he was a drowned rat! He revealed it had been raining pretty much continuously since I left him, and just recently become very heavy indeed. It was nice and warm, and cold beer was on offer here, so it would be rude not to stop for another one.
Laggan Locks
Loch Lochy
One of the worst things about the rain was that the 10 shortbread fingers I had stashed in my bib shorts were starting to perish. The jaffa cakes were not much better either, and had mostly turned to mush. Despite just eating a lasagne, the barge beers had made me really hungry. Eating soggy, cold food in wet and miserable weather certainly isn’t a highlight of this trip.
Even in the wet, Loch Lochy was really nice. I feel like they maybe ran of out names when deciding on this one though. It’s like all the other lochs, so I guess it is ‘lochy’!
Loch Lochy
The weather was getting better by Bridge of Oich. It was such a change in fortune compared to earlier on in the day, and I was enjoying myself again. At this point I wished that I’d saved my shortbread.
Bridge of Oich
Fort Augustus has a series of locks connecting Loch Oich to Loch Ness. As I was taking a break, a siren in town sounded and everyone flocked to the locks to see a boat making its way up all five. It was interesting to see, but I think I’d seen it all after one. That still took nearly an hour. It was starting to dawn on me that I had not made mega progress.. since setting off I’d only spent half the total time riding.
To further highlight this problem to me, I saw the guy I had met earlier on yet again. I was wasting an incredible amount of time here.
Loch Ness
Taking this on board, I tried to speed up a bit along Loch Ness. I thought that I’d already taken enough pictures of water anyhow. The rocks above were (again) not very friendly to cycling shoes, and my cleats were almost as bad as this morning’s shortbread.
The most significant highlight was probably Urquhart Castle – though the staff were quite adamant I needed to pay the entry fee. Eventually I found a nice vantage point where I didn’t have to do that – and some people followed me. A guy was quite insistent on taking my photo whilst down there. He really went to town, but failed on every attempt to get a full view of the castle in shot with me. Absolute useless.
I think he just wanted a picture of his own, but didn’t want to ask. I didn’t offer and that made it a bit awkward. He looked really unhappy, so eventually I caved ? I can be awkward sometimes.
The cyclist I kept on seeing passed me whilst having these photos taken. That was the fourth time I’d seen him today!
Inverness arrival
I don’t reckon I’ve visited Inverness before. It seems to have loads of good options for accommodation, food and beers! I’m pretty sure tomorrow morning will be very much a repeat of this morning haha.
