DAY SEVENTEEN & DAY EIGHTEEN
Before I continue, you may wonder why there are some pictures of a Jack Russell for day 16?  This is Coistie (named after Ally McCoist) and is one of the Castletown Hotel regular's pet dog.  The dog is a bit of a superstar and was the guest of honour when they re-opened the refurbished bar.  As you will see from the first picture of him, he even has his own perch, so he can sit at the bar.  As soon as Pinhead and I walked into the bar, he growled.  Obvioulsy because we were not locals, but he soon allowed us in for a drink.  He is the coolest dog I have met and I wanted to take him, but didn't think it would be very friendly to stuff him in one of my panniers.

So, back to day 17.  Technically our LEJOG challenge was done, but we still had the small matter of going to Dunnet's Head.  As we had done nearly 1100 miles with panniers, we treated ourselves by doing the 18 mile round trip without them.  The difference was amazing, we aflew there.  My bike was literally 2 stone lighter!

It was really nice to go there and as Pinhead put it, "It was the icing on the cake"  We had now cycled between the two furthest places apart in mainland UK and had also visited the furthest South and furthest North places in mainland UK.

Pinhead came out with another geographical classic, as we were looking west from Dunnet Head, he asked "Is that Ireland?".  "er, no mate that is still Scotland!

We cycled back to the hotel, to pick up our panniers and then cycled back to Thurso to catch our first train of the day.  This was a 3.5 hour journey back through the Highlands to Inverness.  Highlights of this journey.  Firtsly I finally saw a wild Stag, 3 of them.  So I was very happy about that.  Secondly there was a woman sitting near us with a 9 month old girl called Lexie, she was in a head to toe pink outfit with a pink dummy.  Along comes an old dear " Oh he's lovely isn't he"  "How old is he?"  "It is a he isn't it?"  Someone should of gone to Specsavers me thinks!!  Thirdly, as we approached various train stations, the automated tannoy as per usual would announce the station name.  I loved it when approaching one station, the tannoy announced that it was a request stop?  I couldn't see any bells to press on the train and if I was standing on the platform, sticking your hand out hoping for the train to stop seemed a risky proposition.  So I haven't got a clue how this 'request stop' business works?

We got to Inverness about 4.30 and had 5 hours to kill, after wandering around aimlessly for 10 minutes trying to find somewhere, I managed to sweet talk a lady on reception of the Royal Highland Hotel to allow us to store our bikes there.  Very nice hotel (see piccies).  We retired to the adjoining restaurant to update blogs and piccies and consume 2 bottles of red wine accompanied by fillet steak for Pinhead and Duck breast for me.  Caroline our waitress (from The Orkeney Islands) was really nice and sorted us out with a 20% discount.  We had a quick dash to the local co-op for some supplies (booze) for the train.

Putting our bikes on the train, despite having reserved a space for our bikes, there wasn't enough room, to put them in properly, something to do with the 50 odd boxes of fresh lobster that was taking up most of the space, which we later found out were lobster for a certain Mr Gordon Ramsay.  My bike now has a nice fishy aroma!  So Gordon, if you are reading this, which I am sure you are, how about a little donation to each of our charities, I am sure you can afford it.

Pinhead and I got to our cabin with bunk beds and it was like being on a school trip, we made our way to the 1st class lounge area which we were allowed in, (as we had a berth booked) and bought another half bottle of wine each.  At first there wasn't enough seats, so Pinhead sat on the floor.  To say we were treated like lepers was an understatement, I have never seen so many people look down their noses at me.  Obvioulsy they are much better people then me and riff raff like myself and Pinhead dressed in cycling gear shouldn't be allowed to invade their space.  But I was in a DILLIGAF mood, so sat back enjoyed myself and drank more wine, followed by a bottle of Wild Cat Ale, followed by a bottle of Stag Ale (both from the Cairngorn Brewery) follwed by a bottle of Red Kite and a bottle of Porter (both from the Black Isle Brewery)

I think we crashed out just after midnight and woke at 6.30am.  Pinhead wasn't feeling top of the world, I was OK.  We got into London just before 8am and I had a quick panic, when I couldn't find my Garmin, but it was eventually found.

We then had to cycle from Euston to Monument where I went right over London Bridge and Pinhead went left towards Liverpool St.  I still don't know if he made it there yet, knowing Pinhead he is probably cycling on the A2 at the moment.  As we cycled past one of London's most iconic landmarks, Pinhead asked "Is that St Pauls?"  I replied "yes", "Big isn't it" he responded!

I had cycled nearly 1100miles, the length of the country and had not had a single incident with a pedestrian.  In the 3 odd miles from Euston to London Bridge, I had 4 people step out in front of me without looking.  Add to that being cut up my 2 cyclists, 1 London cabbie and a Bus.  It was nice to be back cycling on the streets of London!!

I popped into Mich's Work to say hello.  She said my belly looked smaller but I smelt of booze, one thing you can say about Mich is that she is always honest :-) I had a quick coffee with her and it was nice to get congratulations from some of her colleagues (although Ade and Pete count as former colleagues anyway)  Oh and you heard it here first, Ade and Pete are thinking of possibly doing LEJOG next year, so any E&Y people reading this, get on their case!  Sorry fellas ;-)

After getting home, I was very domesticated and put all my cycling gear straight into the washing machine.  Went and saw my Mum & Dad for some lunch and am now back home typing this and I will be picking my little boy up from nursery in about 45 mins, let's just hope he recognises me!

Roadkill Count for day 17.  One worm and that was it

Distance covered on Day 17 was 35.7kms (22.2miles).  Climbing 191m (626 feet)
Total Distance Cycled 1769.2kms (1099.3 miles).  Elevation 17599m (57739 feet)
If you include the Euston to London Bridge cycle, we would have broke the 1100 mile mark.

I will be doing one final blog at the weekend, once I have pondered on and digested everything that has happened.

By the way I lost 6lbs in weight, don't forget muscle is heavier than fat ;-)

Bye for now
Fathead
 


Comments

Keith N

Tue, 21 Sep 2010 08:45:53

Congratulations mate and welcome back.
You only lost 6lbs because you restricted yourself to one pint per night for the duration of the ride.
We'll make sure that wieght loss is regained at the next couple of Millwall games.

 

Uncle Colin & Auntie Pam

Tue, 21 Sep 2010 09:10:31

Hi Ray As you know we are a mind of useless information but not a lot of people know this but we think your pretty fungi next to Loch Ness is a fly agaric mushroom.

 

Mich

Wed, 22 Sep 2010 13:42:21

Err who the bloody hell are those know it alls - Uncle Colin and Auntie Pam?

 

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