Cold and windy this morning. Felt like a gale was blowing through my tent. The noise from the road woke me up. Then I got back to sleep and the train from the line the other side of the campsite woke me. So I struck camp and chatted to the bikers from Newcastle who were camped next door. Such lovely guys, when I told them I was raising money for MSF they handed me a £20 note. So generous.
Just outside Tain, 1.5 miles out, I got a puncture. A proper one, something had gone through the tyre wall and the tube
New tyre and tube needed. Amazingly a passing dog Walker who lived up the road offered us a spare tube. We gave him some cash bit it was so kind of him.
This delayed our start by an hour. But as we left Tain and headed West along the Moray Firth the weather improved. The landscape is changing. Gone are the desolate wilderness scenes of the mountains with their sheep. Here there begin lush pastures filled with cows and fields of barley. We still see lots of bright yellow gorse and broom. It provided a good backdrop to this pylon.
The road to Dingwall was quiet and undulating. We've done the most climbing today so far but it has been easier because the climbs are long and slow, yesterday they were sharp and sudden. We picked up provisions in Dingwall and stopped for a picnic in forest just outside Inverness.
Coming into Inverness over a great big bridge was dramatic. I'm terrified of heights so I kept my eyes straight ahead. Once through the town we set off down the Inverness canal - pretty fast flat cycling and then on the A82 to Invergarry via Loch Ness.
Loch Ness was the highlight. The views are amazing and majestic. Deep blue water, the sun came out and the sky cleared so we got a great view of the mountains. We are at a beautiful campsite here - but I didn't realise it was on the top of a hill, so one last 100m climb and we had arrived.
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