Finished at last!

Finished at last!
The whole team plus Paul who had just walked it in 66 days!

White Horse Riders

White Horse Riders
John O'Groats here we come!

Thursday 16 September 2010

Day 13 - Spean Bridge - Beauly 52miles

This morning we spent some time chatting to the local Highlanders (see photo). They appreciated our left over breakfast toast! So we set off after the photo call and I was in fine form! Brad has had a complete overhaul including getting rid of the 'miracle' saddle! I am now riding on the more normal version which takes some getting used to but didn't slow me down. Trusty had kindly 'degunked' all the bikes so we had no excuses. And we sped along, compared to alot of the other days. The weather held out, light showers, not too much wind, sunny spells. And that glorious scenery at every twist and turn in the road. Wow, Scotland knows how to do scenery! We stopped at the little town at the head of Loch Ness, whose name completely escapes me now (6hours later). We watched the boats negotiating the lock. Had a coffee and then set off at a pace again. We were heading for the biggest climb we have left which was Dromnadrochit. It was coloured purple on our map which is higher than any we have climbed so far. We took a short break at the bottom before girding our loins for the ascent. I girded as much as I could on the new saddle but it still wasn't enough to push me up the final 100yrds! Ran out of puff and had to push Brad the rest of the way. But hey ho! Can't be helped. Alex took a break half way and when he got back on his gears locked and he fell off! Trusty did his usual good egg routine of encouraging us all (he wasn't a Captain in the military for nothing you know!). Beth slogged it up with just a brief breather on the way. Finally we were all there and relieved that....that is it! The last big hill of our entire trip. Whoppppeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!. And it was all the way downhill after that. We virtually coasted all the way down into Beauly. Found Coach who had spent the day trying to reconcile his accounts. Yes, on top of everything else he keeps all the accounts and they have been causing him some concern over the past few days. So many kitties to keep track of! But all done now.  We are now all showered and relaxing in the hotel lounge waiting for James, Cathy and baby Keira to join us for the evening. A real sense of almost there now. And so many stories to tell that haven't made it to these pages. Lots of fun, the odd fractious moment but generally very good humoured.
So today we did 52 happy miles and made it to 11mph!

1 comment:

  1. Almost there indeed, it's so exciting, but I'll be sad when it's all over too. Fingers crossed the rain holds off and the wind too! See you in the morning...xx

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