Day 16

As it was a new day, we all hoped for a slight improvement in weather. However, after eating as much of the youth hostel's continental breakfast as we could, we were met with "heavy drizzle", which got us soaked in a few minutes. Also, there was one of the dodgiest starts to the day, which involved carrying our loaded bikes over flights of steps to get over a bridge.

The weather was bad, and although the road was an A road, it was single track the entire way. We were surprised anyone used the road, the largest town we found before Tongue had two houses, one of which was a pub.

The weather got worse and worse, but after about 20 miles it died down completely (to drizzle), which made us very happy. The rest of the day was much nicer, there were plenty of hills but they gave us great views.

From LEJOG Day 16

Tongue youth hostel was small and cosy, gave us views over the sea, and best of all, had home-made cake and rolls. In the evening we thought about the distance we'd ridden - 15 days ago we arrived at Tintagel very close to breaking point, but we were now at the top of Scotland.

Physically everyone was fine- no sore muscles or bums, however, we were all apprehensive about our bikes. A mechanical failure at this point would be devastating, and all we wanted now was to get home for our holiday! Also, we were all very mentally tired - Nick pointed out we'd been working 7 days a week, from 7am to 6pm, so it isn't really a surprise we went to bed that night at 9.

Day 15

Yet another early start, but fortunately me and Sam had a large box of Crunchy Nut and a litre of milk between us. With this moderate amount of energy stored up, we set off (midges in hot pursuit).

By this point we really were in the heart of Scotland. As we passed Inverness and the Bonar bridge, we realied no sane person would go this far north. Due to Inverness we had to avoid the main roads, which also meant a really big climb (250m). Navigation was slightly more complicated (meaning we actually had to navigate), but there were no major mishaps and the roads were all signed. Near the end of the day we had another giant climb (about 250m again), but this time we got the best view of the entire trip, followed by breath-taking downhill.

From LEJOG Day 15

We were really excited about our accommodation that night - Carbisdale Castle is meant to be the best youth hostel in the UK, and though that might not be saying much, it is an actual castle complete with naked statues and priceless artwork. Although the showers left much to be desired (probably Medieval technology) there was a TV and best of all, a pool table.

In total we rode 64.4 miles and followed this route.

Day 14

After our rest day, it wasn't too difficult to wake up and get back on the road - we were encouraged by the fact the hills weren't too bad and the navigation was really simple.

What was quite exciting (for me) was arriving in Fort William. After coming this many miles North, it was strange to arrive at a place I'd been before and recognised. Unfortunately, in Fort William it started raining again. The rain continued for most of the day, but it wasn't too heavy... at least?

We literally only followed the A82 all day, although the road was scenic enough to stop us dying from boredom. Because it was very flat and straighforward, we went really fast. This meant we arrived at Fort Augustus with enough time to look around and be tourists. Fort Augustus had a large shop enroute, so we bought milk and Crunchy Nut.

Earlier we had all made bets (a mars bar) on who could guess the time of arrival. We also raised the stakes if someone got within 5 minutes (3 mars bars). This turned out to be a bad idea, because in the last few miles we realised Nick was dangerously close to his guess. The rest of us cycled full speed to avoid paying the 3 mars bars, although Nick didn't have the same motivation and struggled to keep up. Fortunately (for us) we arrived at 4:20, and Nick had guessed 4:30.

From LEJOG Day 14

Because we'd made such good time, we had the hostel to ourselves. The hostel was really nice and looked over Loch Ness. That evening we had enough energy to play the game of life (a board game), and cook a reasonable meal.

Our total distance was 58.3 miles. Here is the route we followed.