Skye view

Set of on day one of this highland adventure with Rob, driving to Achnasheen before getting on the bikes.

Down Glen Docherty, between the peaks of Carn a'Ghlinne and Carn Loisgte, before turning left along Glen Torridon, with the very very impressive mountains of Beinn Eighe and Liathach to guide us on our way. Amazing geology - you could see the strata so clearly, and the folds of the rock, I felt like I was cycling through one of my lectures.

We had a brief and midgey stop at Shieldaig for a spot of lunch, looking over the sea lochs and across out towards the outer hebradies. We continued on, bowing round to the south to Ardarroch, then up Glen Carron. Horrible horrible slog uphill for 19 miles with a headwind, which sapped me of all energy - I collapsed into all food I could get my hands on as soon as we were back to the car. It was good we'd decided not to tackle Bealach na Bà, the UK's only alpine pass with a 626m climb, 20% gradient and adding an extra 20 odd miles to the trip. We ended on 64 miles, quite a good run.

Glen Carron had the sort of repetitive scenery that made it impossible to tell how fast or how fast you were going, and was pretty disheartening. Made me think of boring and depressing it would be to cycle along the long, straight desert roads of the world, with nothing to look at for points of reference.