Day 5
Durness to Thurso
116km, 1,600m ascent
On account of wearing a cycling jersey with an image of a rooster on the back, Simon has become known as ‘Cock of the North’ on this trip. I don’t know what they put in his chicken feed for breakfast, but COTN was on a mission to tear up the terrain this morning. I simply had to fasten my seat belt & hang-on to his tail as he ripped around Loch Erribold at the start of the morning.
Once the feathers had stopped flying, we twisted our way towards Tongue for the morning coffee stop. At this stage the heavens opened, meaning we received an alternative kind of Tongue lashing as the rain bounced off our waterproof capes. The Westerly wind continued to aid our efforts along the coastline, as we wound our way past Bettyhill. After polishing off the well known local dish of tagliatelle, we powered on towards Dounreay.
At this stage the levels of road traffic picked up to an extent previously unseen on the trip. Perhaps it was shift change at the power station, or maybe the locals had heard that the warriors were in town. Either way, we’re now in Thurso, where it would appear that not much has changed in the last 40 years.
Tomorrow’s quite a big day to Brora – I suspect a tail wind is out of the question, so strong legs will be required to power through the headwinds. Extra chicken feed is on order.
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