Thurso

We were staying at Carbisdale Castle youth hostel overnight at Bonar Bridge, and had a good evening meal before watching a bit of TV. The setting was bizarre-a castle in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by trees and with fantastic views of the surrounding countryside. The inside was quite grand (for a youth hostel) and was full of statues of semi-naked women (tasteful-mostly of goddesses and nymphs) and lots of oil paintings. This was somewhat at odds with a room full of sleeping men (11 of us), including the DA staff, John-the snoring Scots/American, Jamie-the 'talk first ask questions later' youth of the group, and Conrad-another American having a hard time on the trip thus far.

The day started at around 5.30am as Brian, one of the DA staff and avid LeJOG walker, had to leave to help on a walking adventure on Hadrian's Wall. This woke most of us up, but also made us appreciate that the DA guys have very hard long days keeping the tour party ticking over-big thanks to them. Eventually I had to get up and get moving. Blackburn Andy was up at this stage, and we got our bikes to the front of the castle, and then Andy turned his attention to trying to fix Tim's bike, which had been in 3 bike shops for various repairs on the trip. This time the issue looked terminal, as no gear selection could be made, so DA had to break out one of their road bikes for Tim!

A group of us waited for cooked breakfast, served at 8am, whereas a lot of the guys headed off to Crask Inn, some 20 miles up the road. Suitably fueled, we headed down the drive in the rain (boo!), and then crossed the footbridge to get onto the road to the Crask Inn.

Of course we almost immediately started with some hills, and soon I was starting to breathe quite heavily. We managed to catch and pass some of the late riders until we came to a level crossing where Scott, Dave and Tim were at the side of the road. It appeared that Dave had somehow come off his bike at the crossing and fallen heavily (bear in mind that he is 65 and retired). Scott's rear derailleur had taken a knock and the bike wouldn't change gear anymore-Andy bent it back into shape so he could at least get some gears, and we pressed on.

The rain persisted, and then all of a sudden the road turned into a lane with passing places. The countryside became barren, and with the poor weather, everything seemed pretty gloomy. We pressed on, and made the Crask Inn just as the majority of the party were leaving there. We stopped and had coffee and shortbread. The sun started to come out, and suddenly things looked like they were on the up. However, Ben noticed that his chain looked like one of the links was bent. This started the end for his bike, as although the links were replaced, a quick test ride ended with the rear derailleur hanger snapping-disaster for the most serious cyclist on the trip!!! It looked like the trip was done for Ben until he could get the spare from the DA guys at the lunch stop. Andy and I headed on, leaving Ben with his broken bike.

The scenery for the next few miles was amazing. The weather made it more enjoyable, as it suddenely became very sunny, and we started to dry out. We kept a good pace to lunch, but the scenery was amazing-virtually no traffic at all, with Lochs and rolling hills. The scenery as was got to Bettyhill was all the sweeter for seeing the sea, and the short climb to the lunch stop did nothing to dampen the spirits.

We had a quick lunch and pressed on. We only had 30 miles to do, but I can tell you that this was amongst some of the toughest miles of the trip. The road was very hilly, and required a good effort to keep the momentum up. That said the scenery was a just reward for the climbs and we cracked on to the water stop. Only a short stop before we pressed on to catch up with the rest of the cyclists in front of us. The weather was great, and the views to the north sea were clear. It's not how I expected it to look, but then again, I'm not certain what I was expecting.

We pulled into Thurso at around 4pm, where we met with Allen on the main road-he led us up to the hotel, and here we parked the bikes and got our rooms sorted out.

The atmosphere amongst the group is superb now, we are almost there. We are all going to cycle to Dunnet Head tomorrow, and then on to JOG, so only 32 miles, but it will be a great achievement to finish.

The greatest act of charity on the trip thus far was the fact that Conrad gave his bike up for Ben at the Crask Inn water stop, which allowed Ben to carry on with completing the trip. Superb guy!

Anyway, onwards and upwards, 32 to go and we are there!!!!!