An easier day’s ride with only a couple of steep climbs and a pleasant gentle descent down into Durness, we even finally enjoyed the wind behind us as we turned back away from the North Coast to go down the side of Loch Eriboll to Glenaladale B&b in Laid were we finished our ride. We’ve now completed 138miles.
So what have we enjoyed enroute?
The first part of the ride again took us through some wild and desolate terrain. But that doesn’t stop it being useful as at several points we saw peats cut and stacked to be used by locals for fuel.
Durness was a welcome sight, the poin at which we “turned the corner” to travel accross the top of Scotland to John O Groats, which according to google map is now 82 miles away.
We made the slight detour to Durness Craft Village to partake of the delights of a “the best mocha and hot chocolate in the world”, which we have to say were pretty good, and the croissant with white choc and toffee wasn’t bad either! The craft village itself was interesting, it uses old military buildings which we heard were to be part of an early warning centre in the cold war, but never completed.
A quick stop had to be made to look into some very deep holes that make up part of Smoo caves. Then it was onto Loch Eriboll, which we discovered has the honour of being the place where the German U-boats surrendered at the end of the second world war.
And I’m finishing the day by having a jam with the owners of the B&B who seem to have all and every type of musical instrument going except a flute so I’m going to be on the recorder.
Check out the Flickr stream for today’s photos.
Site Stats
Note: Edited milage/time as cyclemeter played up.
Started: 10 Jun 2010 10:03:04
Ride Time: 3:57:38
Stopped Time: 2:48:05
Distance: 37.45 miles
Average: 9.46 miles/hr
Fastest Speed: 25.74 miles/hr
Climb: 1493 feet