I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)

By -
After eating our own weight in frozen lasagna we settled down to watch the Tour Dr France highlights on TV.  Obviously there is no comparison between what they do and what we are doing but they are still young......and if they keep pushing they might one day reach our level.

We shared the lounge with a chatty Glasweigen couple whose knowledge of geography beyond Scotland's borders could best be described as hazy.  They had heard of Folkstone, Reading, Basildon and Poole but had no idea where any of them were.  Mention of other places just drew blank looks.   After a couple of hours of trying to explain that London wasn't as far south as Cornwall we gave up and went to bed.

Today was, again, mostly dry.  This is the longest dry spell since records began and Nicola Sturgeon has declared a public holiday to celebrate.  Apart from being dry the weather is pretty poor...cool, overcast and blustery.  Most cyclists refuse to acknowledge the scientific possibility of a tail wind but we had one all day and I was very glad of it as my legs are very  sore.  We did 20 miles along the banks of Loch Ness before climbing over to to the Cromerty Firth via Beuly.  This is of significance because Beuly marks the point at which we join the NC500.  For the next 500 miles I'm gonna be avoiding motorcycles and Dutch camper vans.

We have diverted of the route for a night in Tain, an unremarkable town that made a fortune off the back of the oil industry but is now hurting badly.  We are in the Royal Tain Hotel which was probably once the jewel in the high street but is now a bit shabby.  Our room is large and has a bath and a large packet of shortbread so no complaints from us!

Tomorrow we start to work out way up the east coast.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Rage Hard

By -
Image
Leading a tour down the US West Coast isn't the worst way to spend 4 weeks and it has many compensations.  The weather is lovely, the scenery is off the scale and you get to drink magnificent craft beers and eat well.  Putting out the odd fire and springing pillocks from jail is all part of the sport. BUT, and it is a big but (you get a lot of big butts in Merica), the daily hotel check-in is absolutely the worst thing.  Regardless of how carefully you have checked the reservations there is a clenching of the buttocks as you approach reception.  Today the first contact was good....they had all 15 rooms and cats were allowed.....but they weren't ready.  No problem, I was 30 minutes early.  30 minutes later.....still no rooms.  Cyclists were arriving; hot, tired grumpy cyclists.  The receptionist had run out of fucks to give several years ago.  I asked to see the manager.  Out walked a thing that was once the manger but was now a barrel of lard with a head.  We exchan
Read more

Now That's What I Call Music Volme 4

By -
Image
Won't Stop Running/Golden Brown The 24-hour dysentery that has been working through the group has now reached me.  Bugger. Invisible  When making any on-line transaction in Merica is necessary to provide a telephone number and a valid zip code.  If paying by credit card this must match the zip code the card is registered to.  There is absolutely no provision for anyone without a US phone number and a card registered to a US address.  It's like non-Mericans don't exist or, maybe, just aren't worth bothering about. Some hotels and supermarkets have devices to scan photo-id. You've guessed it....these only recognise US driving licences.  For hotels you have to piss off and find your passport and in stores you have to wait while the manager is called to authorise the purchase.   We should retaliate and only serve Mericans in the UK if they can correctly pronounce Leicester Square. Wonderful Copenhagen Today we have ridden
Read more

Drinking in L.A

By -
Image
We are starting to entertain the very remote possibility that we will make it to the Mexican border! It continues to be an uphill struggle with mechanical and logistical challenges but we battle on. On Tuesday night our hotel was several miles from restaurants so we cleared a few seats in the van and sent out the simplest of instructions......form yourselves into a group of 6 and another of 7, decide whether you want to go to the harbour or downtown and pick a time.  What could possibly go wrong?  We had groups of 4, groups where most wanted the harbour but others wanted downtown, both groups wanting the same time...........I finally got off duty at 9pm, another 14 hour day! Yesterday we rode down through Malibu, Santa Monica and Venice Beach, the latter portion on a superb bike path through the beach.  Despite some heavy traffic in Malibu everyone enjoyed the day and we all arrived in Redondo Beach in high spirits.  Despite an already very high bar in terms of hotel in
Read more