Inverness to Abriachan

We woke to a still and clear day and were all in high spirits as we started on the first leg of the journey. However due to poor planning and the last minute dash to leave home yesterday, we needed to make a stop in Inverness at the bank (an ID check to finalise the opening of a business account, as you do...) and of course that took longer than necessary by which time everyone was hungry and whingey and so we had some bacon rolls in the Tiso cafe and then eventually we were off.

By the time we hit the outskirts of Inverness the day was turning out to be a bit of scorcher and we were all left gasping for water as we pushed our laden bikes up the steep incline, for almost a mile. We knew this section was going to be steep, but hadn't realised just how steep, so by the time we got to the point where the route flattened out most of the little ones' good will had been used up and we were onto mini aeros and boxes of smarties to keep them going.

But keep going we did, until about 4 hours in the saddle, just short of Abriachan when legs were tiring and drinks were running low. It was at that point my lovely husband headed back to pick up the car and the little ones and I continued on for a bit towards our destination. Had we not been distracted by a short break in a passing place at which we ate a punnet of cherries we might have made it, but hey does it matter? We are on our holidays after all and those cherries were mighty fine.

Collected by my lovely husband our domestique, we loaded up the car and nipped back into the nearby big smoke to celebrate our success with some celebratory pizza.