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The day after the day before.
I slept and slept but then woke up sharply at 7am when one of my fellow room mates snooked off to the loo.
I gave it half an hour and then climbed out of bed too. The kitchen was still locked
(curfew 11pm - 8am to stop inmates setting toasters on fire.) so I took advantage and fixed the puncture. I am not sure how
me dropping everyone elses bikes down the fire escape went, but no one seemed to notice.
It did turn out to be a thorn in the side of the tyre though. But the fix was straight forward, and my little pump blew the tyre up alright.
I might try and get a bigger pump from somewhere, and get it pumped up good an' hard.
I packed my bags, and put on the driest clothes I had - eek. By now it was about 10, kicking out time, so I left
my stuff in storage and wandered into town to find the one and only Internet cafe.
It was shut, due to open at 11 in an hours time; I couldn't really hang on, but since next door was a lovely cafe doing full breakfasts for a fiver
I thought I would indulge and hope.....
15 minutes later feeling very happy about choice of breakfast, and then I found the outside door to the Internet cafe now open.... As you have guessed he was happy to open
early and I got on with updating the site and reading the emails. Thanks for all you support, and Mike I did have a curry on the corner next to the river, different name, but it could have been
the one you spoke of.
It took a while but finally at 1pm, having collected my stuff, I was (you guessed it) swearing away as I climbed a massive hill out of Inverness.
It soon became apparent where I had gone wrong yesterday. I followed the signs for 'Route 1' until it directed me towards a small village (containing a ferry) on the other side of the estuary.
Secondly it would appear that 'Route 1' goes to Aberdeen and that I should now be following 'Route 7'.
The rest of the day followed the same pattern. I reached my cruising speed of 4-5mph, and the road just climbed and climbed.
I couldn't understand it. The road seemed to flatten out but no matter how I tried I was stuck in the same gear my legs wizzing round for little progress.
When I looked back, it would confirm that the hill was never ending.
Initially I tried to find an alternative route to keep me off the A9, but this didn't really work. Finally I decided to go with the flow, and cycle along the 18inch strip to the left of the edge marker.
This was Ok, and with the road being quiet I felt OK. After about 15 miles a cyle path appeared and took me off the main road and into safety.
By now it was becoming apparent that I wasn't going to make Newtonmore. I must have still had 15 miles to Aviemore, 25 miles to Kingussie, and 35 miles to my hostel to go. It was probably half four, when I rang Rosie, and she set about
re-arranging my accomodation. We have moved the hostel booking on one night, and I will have a short day (35 miles) tomorrow. This should help my legs recover but slips all the days by one. Hopefully I can make it up later when it gets flatter.
Rosie told me that Aviemore was fully booked, and that I should take what I could find. I ended up seeing a sign just as I entered Carrbridge and tonight I will stay in an Old Victorian house for £20.
It has worked out really well. He (the house owner Steve) has kindly put my clothes in the washer and with a bit of luck I will start out with clean clothes tomorrow. I am also using his computer to update my web page. So thank you Steve.
I nipped down into the village for tea which was nice, I had one pint of An Teallach which for me is a record.
As soon as I have finished updating this, I am off to bed. The weather today was brilliant, I hope it continues. I will have an earlier start, but not too early.....
Speak to you tomorrow Phil
(I took no pictures today, I was too fed up.)
You can email me here. Send me
your comments and tips.
P.S. I weighed myself today and am down from 18 stone to 17 stone 10. Pound a day?
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