Day 4 Wed 27 Jul Inverness to Fort William

Wow a bir of a tough day today to be fair.  Can;t complain as we had beautiful sunshine and have been on some fantastic routes but we are both now feeling very very tired.

The start of the day took us down the east side of Loch Ness and was just stunning.  The scenery was briliant but boy did we have a climb to get to the top of this mother of a hill before we dropped down into Fort Augustus.  It just seemed to go on and on forever.  The view at the top would have been breathtaking if the actual climb hadn't already achieved that.  The downhill run was imense though really really good if not a little scary in places.

When we got to Fort Augustus we stopped at the side of the locks and watched the boats go through then went into the Bothy which is owned by some people we know who bought us lunch and drinks which was very kind of them.  In fact while talking about the kindness of people we were also approached by a woman who had seen us struggling up a hill.  She had been able to identify that we were doing it for charity (she would have had plenty of time to read our shirts) and stopped and gave us a fiver for the fund,  There are some really nice people around.

After Fort Augustus we had another 30 odd miles along the A82 which was quite hard today.  Fortunately we have had Mick cycling with us all the way and Shaz has been brilliant as support.  Just when we have been flagging she had appeared in a layby with water, bananas and the final stop she had scones.  Brilliant.

Anyway to quickly summarise today it has been very hard but with fantastic scenery.  I would never have thought that we would have cycled from Inverness to Fort William by the banks of Loch Ness and then alongside Ben Nevis.  Marvellous.

For anyone wanting stats we cycled 70 miles today and cycling time was 6 hrs 16 mins.  Clearly it took us alot longer with the stops but a really good hard day.

You can't have any pictures from today yet as I can't be bothered to get the camera but I will include some others from previous days and when we have the 1 rest day that we have planned I will get more organised.

Thanks for all the good wishes that we have had and please feel free to give any comments you want on this blog.

Cheers

We both have shirts like this so that all the drivers etc know what we are doing and will hopefully not run into us but might give us donations - its working

Out in the wilds.

Jackie looking at the signpost that told her it would be 80 miles to Inverness after she had been told it would be 60 miles.

Her reaction to the news.

The black pig parked up for a short while at Bonar Bridge

When you climb a hill in Scotland you are generally rewarded with a good view.  This one isn't bad - but then again it was a hell of a climb.

Anyway gotta sleep another 70+  miles in the morning so goodnight