Day 6 Going East

Today (Monday) was fun. The uphills were short and steep but the downhills long and sweeping so it seemed like we were breezing though the miles.

The midges have still to make an appearance, we are wondering if the brewers yeast we have been taking is the reason (a preventative tip passed to Susan by her mum). If so the downside is that the tics seem to love it - two more each today!! We are wondering if a video of how to remove them might go viral??

It looked as though we were going to get ahead of our 50 miles a day requirement but a rainstorm in Durness at about 5pm put paid to that as we sheltered in a bus stop pondering “to camp or not”. The clincher was that the only place serving hot food was closing early because they were short staffed and so rather than pedal on and be disappointed we booked into a youth hostel opposite the bus stop - that has a kitchen so we can cook for ourselves.

Lots of places up here are closed or on limited opening because of staff shortages. That led to us missing breakfast at the Rock cafe. We were also a bit disappointed when the “bakes” in what we thought to be a cyclist friendly cafe “Bakes, bikes and bits” turned out to the owners surname! Still, we bought a spare pair of brake blocks as they are getting worn through - we have to be careful as some of the downhills are on the limit of what the brakes on a fully loaded tandem can manage. We took one “1 in 4” very carefully only to be struck that it seemed less step than previous half a dozen.

The scenery changed from mighty mountains to a rolling sea of rock somewhere near Scourie. Very beautiful still but a bit wilder and remote looking.

Tomorrow - we head Eastwards , quite a significant moment for us. Susan says it’s all flat from here (Stephen not so sure).

Thanks again for reading and encouraging us !!

Susan and Stephen

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