|
Wednesday 26th May 2010 Lairg to Bettyhill A shower at the start of today’s ride made me immediately put my waterproofs on and they stayed on for the rest of the day. That shower didn’t last long but there were others to follow and the temperature was very low. In the afternoon by Loch Loyal there were even a couple of hail showers accompanied by an icy wind – a bit unpleasant but fortunately they didn’t last long.
The route from Lairg to Tongue was nice to ride along, quite level with gentle undulations over a predominantly flat landscape. The country there is very empty and you can look out over mile after mile of deserted heathland. Occasional islands in this sea of tranquility are the two Munros, Ben Klibreck and a distant Ben Hope, plus the striking outline of the smaller mountain, Ben Loyal. 12 miles out of Lairg I came to the Crask Inn. There’s a road sign saying ‘CRASK’ as you approach but the place it names is no more than the pub and one other outbuilding. It wasn’t yet 11.00, however, and the pub was still closed so I had to forego my hoped-for cup of tea and press on to Altnaharra, about a further 8 miles along. I got there at 11.40 only to find the pub there didn’t open till 12.00 so I gave up and just bashed on.
More of the same undulations and steadily dropping temperatures until I finally rolled into Tongue where I was cheered up by getting my first sight of the northern coastline. Just past Tongue I found a café at last and stopped there for a very welcome tomato soup and a cup of tea. In addition today I’d had a double egg cheese omelette at Win’s and a vegetable pasty bake thing and cake bought from a shop in Lairg and consumed at about the 30 mile mark so overall I was better fed then than on some previous days and I felt better for it.
After Tongue I followed the coast road, still the A836, which had a few hills en route, including a large one on the approaches to Bettyhill which saw me get off and push. At Bettyhill I stopped for the night at the Bettyhill Hotel, the first place I saw offering accommodation. It cost £25 for a standard (non en-suite) room with a continental breakfast.
In the bar I was able to get a reasonable pasta and yet another rhubarb crumble and then I called in to the lounge which provided internet access so I could check on my Justgiving site. In the lounge I met a fellow Lejogeur, John Rimmer, a 65 year old bloke from Thriplow near Royston - not far from my own home. He was doing the trip on a Dawes Super Galaxy and had started 2 days before me. He said he had found it quite hard at times and wasn’t very quick up the hills. He’d got this far though which was good going. He said he was heading for Thurso the next day and gave me the address of his B&B there. Distance: 51.2 miles Average speed: 9.9 mph Max speed: 36.6 mph | ||||||
 | ||||||
