DAY FOURTEEN.  I awoke this morning, having the best nights sleep I have had all trip, maybe the miles are catching up with me now.  For the first time I couldn't face a cooked breakfast.  Now everybody who knows me, knows The Hippo likes his food, but I have seriously overloaded on sausages, bacon and black pudding. 

We left Fort Bill and cycled for a little way.  I was swerving all over the place as I kept looking up to my right to try and get a good view of Ben Nevis.  I then took a quick right turn as I thought I saw an opportunity for a photo, nearly killing Pinhead in the process.  The cloud cover though wasn't allowing a good photo.

We came of the A82 for a while to take some B-roads, when we came to what we thought was a level crossing and for the first time we had to stop.  In fact it was a swing bridge over the River Lochy which was swinging (not wife swapping) but turning to allow a boat through, what was really interesting was the railbridge also had to swing out of the way also.  Incidentally, despite the rural nature of our route, we have only had to cross 4 level crossings the whole journey, now isn't that interesting!

Just before coming back on to the A82, we stopped off at the Commando Memorial.  This was a very sombre moment.  They is also a rememberance garden as well.  It is very humbling to see who have given their lives for Queen & Country, especially seeing the ages of some of those who have lost their lives, late teens and early twenties.  I have included a photo of the memorial, but I didn't think it was appropriate to take any photos of the rememberance garden.  Lest We Forget.

We then cycled North East following Loch Lochy and Loch Oich.  Now I reckon if there was a committee naming these Lochs, surely these two must have been last on the list.  After a long night of naming hundreds of Lochs, they probably throught it would be a laugh to name one Loch Lochy and then someone who had a tot too many of Scotch probably was asked for the last name and came up with Loch Oich before he passed out.

Now there are 2 ways to cycle along Loch Ness, A82 on the West Side, the easy way of the B862 on the East Side, the hard way.  Being seasonsed cyclists, or just down right stupid, we took the hard way.  This meant a climb that went on for 4 miles plus and over 1300ft in climbing.  But it was well worth it once we got to the top.  The views were amazing, I have uploaded some piccies, but I am not sure if they do the views justice.  Ideally, I would have liked to take the pictures with my SLR and some ND grad filters, but carrying all that kit would have probably killed me after the 2nd day.

We then descended to get along side Loch Ness.  We stopped at a tea shop in Foyers for a well earned cup of tea and then cycled half the length of Loch Ness, this is a bloody long Loch I can tell you.  We did manage to see two red squirrels though which was nice, but they were too quick to get any photos.  The Stag still remains elusive! but we saw a toadstool that I had to take a photo of.

By the way what is the difference between a mushroom and a toadstool? Any ideas?

We arrived in Inverness (The Capital of the Highlands) just before 6pm.

Tonight's Ale was a pint of Trade Winds @ 4.3% from the Cairngorm's Brewery.  The barmaid, did not have a clue what I was talking about when I asked her to take the sparkler off.  I think she thought I wanted to nick her ring!

Roadkill count:  We didn't see anything for the first 50k and then we only saw 4 grouse and that was it.  The wildlife must have a bit more road sense up here.

Distance covered today 104.7kms (65miles).  Climbing 1214m (3982 feet)
Total to date:  Distance 1495.2kms (930.2 miles).  Elevation 15360m (50391 feet)
Bye for now

Fathead
 


Comments

CJ

Fri, 17 Sep 2010 15:31:30

Toadstools and mushrooms are from the same fungi family, but toadstools are poisonous. Most mushrooms are not.

 



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