Day 4
Lochinver to Durness
96km, 1,800m ascent
It’s just as well we like climbing up hills. ‘Cos there’s no shortage of them here. Nothing particularly big, but today had more ups and downs than an Alton Towers roller coaster.
The first couple of hours took us along the coastal road to Kylesku. The pain of the uphill efforts was softened by the omnipresent amazing views, although I did note that Simon was particularly taken by the local sheep population. He snapped numerous pics of the fluffy fellas in a variety of poses, including one sitting on a doorstep of a house, and another nestling into a farm vehicle’s caterpillar tracks. Rather ewe than me, I thought.
Into the afternoon & the wind direction changed, providing us with a couple of hours’ worth of head wind on our journey North. Before we got the chance to bemoan our luck, we bumped into Pip, a lady from Brighton, who’s been hauling her bike & 6 bags around the UK for 8 weeks. We decided to help her by blocking the wind for about 5km up a particularly long climb.
Unfortunately for Pip, she was swiftly ditched at the top of the climb as the warriors decided to press on and hunt down a sole racing cyclist, spotted in the distance wearing a red top. We were knackered by the time we caught him, and then proceeded to accompany him up the final climb, which resulted in my heart rate going through the roof as neither him nor us were willing to show any signs of weakness!
And so here we are, in Durness, on the North coast of Scotland. Time to refuel the tanks before tomorrow’s ride to Thurso.
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