That was a memorable day for all the wrong reasons. I guess we should have known the day was going to be troublesome when we got to the start of the bridge leading north out of Inverness that carries the A9. On arriving we found the footpath and cycleway to be closed. I knew that further up the road was another entrance to the bridge so decided to go for that one. It too was closed but this time with diversion signs. Off we went following the signs which took us to the opposite side of the road from the original path closed sign! I was not a happy chap by this stage with a 2 mile detour for what was 4 lanes of traffic at a roundabout. They didn't want you to cross it I suppose.
Onwards and upwards over the bridge and after following some back roads we met up with the same group who have been following us for 2 weeks. We exchanged some funny comments as appears to now be the norm and plodded on picking up the A9 once again. We were approaching 15 miles into the journey when I noticed the road had a regular bump in it. Odd I thought. Then while hurtling down a long hill I noticed the regular bump in the road getting worse. Ah, it's not the road, it's my bike! My rear tyre had given up and now had a twist and bulge in it. That was almost the end of our trip right there. We tried an internet search, but no signal. So, we phoned Tracey to see if she could do a search for us for the nearest bike shop. Except she was out. We decided to continue with my new bump until we got internet again. And we did, a quick internet search directed us 4 miles in the wrong direction to Dingwall where we found Dryburgh Cycles. A small aladins cave of all things bikes and some very knowledgeable staff who quickly got us up and running again. Thanks guys!
Still, it put us nearly 2 hours out with a now running total of 10 miles on top of our day. Our hearts sank at this point. Heading back to the A9 we were greeted with a steady headwind making it feel like you are constantly riding up hill, this slowed us down too. The remainder of our day was just plain hard going with the last 10 miles dragging it's feet. Until in the last 3 miles Holly got a puncture. Just what we didn't need. We decided to just keep putting air in the tyre just to get us to our rest stop.
Our rest for the night was in the Bellgrave Arms Hotel, which is a hotel come pub. The room was comfortable even if it was ageing a little. But very clean. A quick shower then down for dinner. Except it would appear the kitchen was closed, strangely it closed at the same time as we arrived. So off out we went, to a nearby restaurant, but it too closed as we arrived. I'm sure I took a shower. We finally had fish and chips at the sort of place Mr Large off Dr Martin would have been proud of.
With the day behind us we look forward to getting the trip done in our last leg to John O'Groats.
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