The landscape of Scotland is wonderful to travel through at the pace of a bicycle. There's time to appreciate the environment around you and your certainly closer to it than in a car. The disadvantage is that the mountains are a natural constraint, so there's often only one route from A to B and that means traffic. Even at the end of the tourist season there are still lots of cars and while the majority are considerate, the overall impact is reduce your enjoyment of what should be some great riding.
The day started well. Jacqui and Angus rode with me for a mile or two and saw me onto a new cycle path from Oban to Fort William. It was a chilly morning, but quiet and calm. As the path came close to the loch, I drew up alongside a heron as it flew just 20 feet to my left. I slowed down to match its pace and watched as every languid downbeat of its wings grazed its own reflection on the mirror smooth loch. Magical. Eventually it broke the spell and shaped to land in that ungainly fashion of big birds.
Within a few miles I was no longer able to glide on the smooth cycle paths and had to mix with the cars again (perhaps also in an ungainly fashion?).
It didn't occur to me until I reached the sea again at Dingwall, that in effect, today's ride was a coast to coast. I was just happy to have the chance to have ridden through the Great Glen. Aside from the traffic it's an easy, flat-ish route but stunning. There was a malevolent little climb just after Drumnadrochit, but despite having steep shoulders on the way up (15% for 3/4 of a mile), the rest of the hill had a very long tail, ensuring that a long easy descent followed.
All week the forecast has been showing high winds and heavy rain for Sunday and that hasn't changed. So I rode an extra 25 miles today, up to the lovely town of Tain, to get as far north as possible while the weather held fair, ready for tomorrow's final leg up to John O'Groats.
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