Day 2: Searching for Nessie

Golspie to Aviemore (85 Miles)

Day two started as it almost always does, immediately after day one. Last night I had made a very detailed plan for today, it went as follows: Quick breakfast in the cottage, full breakfast in Tain, lunch in Inverness and then onto Aviemore for the day’s destination. This is exactly what happened.

Tain is about 15 miles from Golspie, leaving me an hour to burn off my first breakfast and be ready for the second. It was tricky, but I managed it and was sufficiently hungry to order the “big breakfast”. The big breakfast set me up beautifully for the bumpy road towards Inverness. So far I have been following a mixture of bike route 1 and bike route 7, I have been extremely impressed with the quality. They do a great job of keeping you off the main roads, which particularly at this time of year can be quite busy and unpleasant for cycling. In fact, a lot of the time there are specific cycle paths, whoever designed the roads, bravo so far, bravo.

The road into Inverness was slightly less pleasant (although I think this was due to a wrong turn on my part). Despite the number of miles I have cycled in the past, I am still relatively uncomfortable on a bike, starting, stopping and signalling under pressure are very tense moments for me. One particular roundabout entering Inverness required all three under extreme pressure. I wish I, or someone else, had filmed the event. I manoeuvred my way onto and through the roundabout with the ease of someone with ten times my skill level, it was magnificent. I would be very surprised if this roundabout incident doesn’t make it into the top ten moments of the trip.

Lunch in Inverness consisted of my first pizza of the trip, setting me up for the climb ahead. I had a brief search for the Loch Ness Monster, but I was reliably informed that she was on holiday, visiting family abroad. The road out of Inverness is uphill immediately, meandering over the Slochd Summit (It even had a sign at the top) and into the Cairngorms National Park. The climb was not particularly tough and the downhill, again due to the excellent roads, was good fun.

Today was cloudy throughout with a couple of showers, but the temperature was perfect especially for the hill climbing. The miles rolled on and as evening approached, I arrived into Aviemore, one of the busiest towns of Scotland for outdoor activities. Over dinner (at the Winking Owl), I tried to arrange accommodation for the night. My initial plan was to camp, but it was clear I had completely underestimated the popularity of Aviemore on a summer weekend, everywhere was full! I eventually had to settle for a bed in a dorm room, not ideal for cycle touring but almost everyone in Aviemore is here for outdoor activities, so it should be an early night all round. Another good day on the bike, aiming to get through the Cairngorms tomorrow.