Another day, another 77 miles in the saddle. This time, with added hills. Yay!

After yesterday’s sunshine, today was more overcast as we set off on the journey south to Inverness, capital of the Highlands. Having filled up on a classic Scottish breakfast of porridge followed by haggis at the wonderful Altnaharra B&B (note: next time Mandy, please wait till after we’ve finished eating the haggis before telling us what’s in it!), we headed off towards Lairg.

Navigation up here is easy: this far up the country there’s pretty much just one road, which once again carried us through beautiful open moorland as we began the long climb up towards the Crask Inn. From there it was pretty flat across the top for a good few miles, the road empty but for a few LEJOGers coming up the other way and a posse of boy racers in Vauxhall VX220s pretending they were driving real sports cars.

Our route took us pretty much straight down National Cycle Network Route 1, albeit with a couple of detours. At Lairg we took the quiet road down the west side of the river Shin past the spectacular falls. Knob gags abounded as we passed through Bonar Bridge (you can take the boys out of Downend, etc. etc.) where we stopped for the compulsory photo and a quick cheese and tomato toastie, before taking our first major detour from NCN1.

Instead of following the road round towards Tain and joining the A9, we cut up across the hills, saving ourselves around 14 miles and enabling us to push on towards Inverness rather than stop short. The initial climb was fairly tough – around three miles up a 12% incline – but the views from the top were stunning, and well worth the effort. Less welcome was our first taste of Scottish rain, with Bailey and I only just managing to get our waterproofs on in time. Weirdly, regulating the body temperature has been one of the toughest challenges we’ve faced – those jackets have been on and off like a bride’s nightie in the quest to balance staying dry with not overheating. The Dawg’s been pretty smug about his lightweight pakajak; you wait for some real rain, mate!

From there we rejoined the NCN1 at Evanton and made our way down past Dingwall alongside some pretty busy A roads. The riding here was pretty grim compared to earlier on – not helped by a surprise climb that seemed to stretch on forever – and we were all fairly fatigued by the time we decided to sack off NCN1 once more in search of nicer riding. The single track along the Beauly Firth that took us to Inverness via Redcastle, Charlestown and the Kessock Bridge was much more pleasant (although the short, sharp climb up to the bridge nearly killed us!) and it’s surprising more people don’t talk about it as an alternative to Route 1.

On arrival we still had to find somewhere to sleep in a town with precious few vacancies, but some wrangling with a local B&B owner saw us all bundled into one room together for a bargain price. A quick shower, then a few beers and a pizza in the shadow of Inverness Castle, seemed to quickly revive our spirits!

It’s been amazing how much the landscape has changed in just one day: from the rugged wilderness of the morning to the (relatively) busy urban environment around Inverness and the Cromarty Firth. Ah well, back off the beaten track tomorrow: Loch Ness for some monster-spotting, and our biggest climb yet…