Day 6-
Well what a joy to wake up at home this morning that was until I looked out the window to check on the weather… My mum prepared breakfast as I had a quick shower. After some scrambled egg rolls, I began to prepare my bike for another long day in the rain, which meant lots of oil on the chain and checks on the brakes. I put on my jacket which I knew would be water proof for the first half hour or so on and set up outside, ready to go, “Are you sure you have got everything” was the last thing my dad said, which made me laugh, as it felt like my first day of school again. I set off for the Kincardine roundabout where Martyn was waiting for me, as soon as I got close I could hear the sound of laughter from him, “Ma bum really hurts mate,” he said. Think we both knew today was going to be a long one. It was freezing, raining and our new saddle no longer felt comfortable. Oh well only 156 miles to go.lol
We headed off and crossed the bridge on the road to Perth, after about 30 miles of us laughing about how cold and wet we were, a “services 1 mile” sign appeared and we decided to get a coffee. Inside we took off a few layers to discover we were completely soaked through. I went into the toilets and poured the water out of my socks, which happened to cost me twenty two pounds and guaranteed to be fully waterproof, then tried to dry them using the hand dryers, which I got into trouble for by a polish cleaner. When the girls arrived we had a chat about the day ahead of us, and the danger we would face on the A9. We realized the rain was not going to stop any time soon so we got our wet gear back on and with the quote of the week “what a treat” we were off. Pretty soon we were on the A9, it was very like the A30 as we were cycling in a small area at the side of the road, watching for cat’s-eyes and drains, with the other little problem of trucks that really cannot see cyclists, flying past nearly throwing you off. The rest of the day was pretty miserable we were wet and cold with a strong headwind forcing the pace to a mere bimble. We just kept going and couldn’t stop laughing at the situation we found ourselves in. We were nearing Aviemore when the girls drove by sporting a large dent in the back of the van, at the next stop we uncovered the story that Kelly for the second time may I add, reversed into something in a van that had more parking sensors than any other vehicle on the road today. We arrived in Aviemore at around half 7, the girls had dropped our stuff at the Hostel, they informed us that the showers were switched off at 11, we still had 30 miles to go, so after fish and chips we made our way to the hostel. We began the last leg of the day with glow sticks hanging from us, and our lights flashing. We continued on the A9 to Inverness, with cars overtaking on the other side of the road heading straight for you and the speed we were reaching on the downhill’s was pretty dangerous but exciting. lol. We ended up in a room with 4 other guys, with Martyn lying on his bed applying large quantities of sudacreme to his saddle rash and me chatting to French students outside, the guys must have thought we were slightly strange. Lol.
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