Day 10 - And they think it's all over! It is now!

Last night was quite an experience. We were staying in a 1790 hunting lodge and dinner was, shall we say, quite interactive in terms of both the family who owned the house, their estate staff and the dogs. It was also exceptionally good and done in a style which has ceased to exist in many parts of the UK. The evening culminated in my trying the local malt in the company of the daughter of the family, and Guy, late of the Cameron Highlanders, and all round good man. I retired before things got out of hand, around the time that Guy suggested trying out the 7mm Mauser he had in the car. I wasn't going to mention this to Becky, but he left me a note referring to said firearm which Becky passed to me without comment in the morning. I also left with a £25 donation which I paid in via Justgiving today.

This morning saw a slightly leisurely breakfast interspersed with dog fussing, attempting to put off the moment when I would ease into the saddle for the last time. As you can see from the day's mileage figure below, the aim was to put in a very short ride to JOG, allowing time for the obligatory photos, before putting the bike on the car for the first leg of the journey home.

The ride was entirely incident free, and I have seldom felt so many mixed emotions as I did when I crested the final climb to see JOG at the bottom of the hill. I felt quite choked up as I passed the village sign, but had to get over it pretty quickly as there were still of couple of sharpish bends to get round.

Becky was there to meet me and give me a big hug by the "mileage sign", we chatted to few other people who had either just finished themselves or were waiting for their rider/s to appear. All done, we had a bite to eat, packed up the car, and set off to the south.

As we covered the journey in reverse down the A9 towards Inverness and picked up the route of Day 9, it began to strike me just how much ground we had covered, me cycling and Becky driving. It really has been quite a piece of organisation and sheer bloody effort to put this together. Once it has all sunk in,I will finish this blog and fill in the technical details.

Until then.

Mileage: 21.3

Total mileage: 867

Total calories: 52,517

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/552560922

https://www.justgiving.com/Sean-Bonnington/