Since early on, we’d been commenting on the fact that every puncture had been in my tyres and that Dan’s must have some magic puncture-resistant layer but today the roles were reversed in spectacular fashion, as Dan’s back tyre blew with an almighty bang, startling the locals and leaving a gaping tear in his inner tube. Fortunately, we were only half a mile from the campsite, and minutes away from Inverness, so one new tyre and inner tube were purchased and Dan was on his way again.
I was reminded of the first day: the weather was glorious and the tail wind was so strong that I covered 4 miles in 8 minutes without peddling down this hill and climbed a couple of others at 25mph. During the first 3 hours, I covered 45 miles which is an average of 15mph or, taking into account the few minutes I spent stationary (to eat a sandwich or refill my water bottles), a record-breaking 17.3mph. We arrived 4 hours 15 minutes after setting off (the same time as Day 1), having covered 60 miles (10 miles more than Day 1).
The route included several very cool bridges, each one over a mile long, over river estuaries (did you know that “Inver” – as in Inverness – means estuary or mouth?) and the sun shone all day as we skirted up the east coast of the country.
The bridge over the Cromarty Firth
Our camp site, Dalchalm just north of Brora, was fabulous, with exceptionally clean facilities and even a short path which led to the beach. After digging holes in the sand, connecting them with tunnels, modifying the arrangement so Dan could sit in it, and finally shoving the sand back in when Dan sat down so that he was stuck, we swam in the sea and even went for a short run (from the sea back to our towels), which I like to think qualifies us as triathletes.
Dan burried in the sand
