Day Twenty One – Loch Ness to Dornoch Firth Bridge

It took a bit of an effort to get going again, especially as within half an hour the heavens opened and we had another torrential downpour.  We stood under a a tree and stared disconsolately at the the rain. 
We had a major change in route planned as we had, due to all the rain slowing us up, abandoned the plan to go via Ullapool. The mission now was simply to arrive without drowning. But we were making slow progress, by half past one we had only just made Drumnadrodrochit, barely eleven miles from the hostel. We went into the tourist information office there. Unfortunately the bike shop, like so many things, had been regulated out of business, but she helpfully found the details for one in Dingwall, thirty miles or so away.  We made a split second decision to head for Dingwall rather than Inverness and set off. 

She had warned us there was “a bit of an up” on the way out and the guidebook also mentioned a “punchy climb”.  Punchy it was. Mercifully at the the top there was about twenty miles of downhill and then flat fast roads. 

We got to Dingwall before closing time, and found the bike shop.  They were very helpful and pumped extra air in our tyres for us.  We purchased new brake blocks and then set off on the last twenty mile mission for that day,heading for Tain.  A local in Tain told us of a site a couple of miles up the road.  Sure enough just before the Dornoch Firth Bridge there was a campsite and pub next door. Three other -End-to_Enders arrived at the same time.  We were a bit crestfallen to discover they had set off from Lands End on the same day we had set off from Dumfries, they planned to complete the whole thing in eight days. But, we reminded ourselves, we were touring,not racing, it was a different thing altogether. The landlord did us proud with a great meal and said if we came over in the morning he would do us breakfast as well.  Sadly no real ale so we managed to swallow a few pints of Tetley (not sure what that was doing all up here) and a couple of single malt nightcaps before crawling into our little tent for the night. 

Stats:
Miles 62

Beers Each: 3

Route here