Today was the last long ride of the trip, and given my
overall state on the previous day, I was a little bit nervous about how the day
would pan out.
It turned out I needn’t have worried; obviously consuming
half my body weight in lasagne (thank you Denise) the previous evening has
refilled the tank for the initial few miles to fly by. Detouring off the A9
before Tain brought the first drama of the day in the shape of a sociopathic
golden retriever cross, which flew at me half way up a steep climb and unable
to sprint away. He intended to wound at the least, so I was forced to dismount
and resort to squirting water from my bottle into his eyes to make him back
off. He was not happy at my presence on his patch, so I ended up walking
backwards up the hill, while he still made the occasional rush at me for the
next 50 metres or so.
Back on the bike, I eventually rejoined the A9, feeling
pretty good and slogged it out until I reached the 55 mile point, where I hit
the first of two fairly major climbs. The second of these, Berriedale, is a real
heartbreaker and left me in bits with 20-odd miles still to go. Salvation appeared a couple of miles later in the shape of the tea room at the Laidhay Croft Museum, where coffee and ginger
cake restored me a little. Note to other would-be LEJOG riders: if you want
water or food, you will have to go into one of the small harbour towns. There
are no petrol stations or the like on the main road.
At this point I did wonder about pressing on to John
O’Groats, but decided that a 105 mile day was not on the cards and that I
should stick to the agreed plan. Good choice, as the B&B for the night was
well worth getting to on time; great dinner, and very good company.
So tomorrow; the last day, and I don’t really want this to
end. A short ride to JOG, towel down, then bike on the back of the car and off
back south. That’s the plan.
Mileage: 87.8
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/551786693
https://www.justgiving.com/Sean-Bonnington/
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