Thursday, July 19, 2007

Evanton to Fort Augustus - 81k - Sun 15th July

We woke to a perfectly beautiful day. Some wind, but the sun was shing and the sky was blue. It was a great day for our meeting with the Loch Ness monster just a few miles to the south!

We took the A862 to Dingwall, then on to Conon Bridge and Muir of Ord, all small villages but very pretty. The countryside was beautiful, espeically as we followed the coastline of the Cromarty Firth for quite some time until heading off into the countryside. Once into the countryside, the roads started to climb, not so much steeply but long and gradual, making us work hard nevertheless.

We were obviously climbing up and over high country before we took a dive down onto the shores of Loch Ness. We were on the A833, and the stretch across country was about 20k which got harder and harder, but the sights of the mountains around us were so attractive. We were aiming for the village of Drumnadrochit on the shores of Loch Ness, but for a long while it seemed all up and not down. We crested the mountain section finally, and there was the sign - 15% descent down into the village of Milton, one mile from 'the Drum'.

It was a very fast drop, with two severaly steep sections. We were just thinking to ourselves that we were glad we didn't have to ridse back up. We had lunch at this very very attractive little town, which was full of tourists and touristy shops with coffee and Scottish souviners. We had one of our bike lunches, and headed off for the ruins of Urquart Castle, which was where the road meets Loch Ness. It was a long pull up and out of the town, but the views of Loch Ness were just startling, a photographic paradise. We just ahd to stop numerous times and adore the scenery. The boats out on the Loch made it look like a watery paradise.

Over the top the castle ruins came into view. This is one of the great castles, but ruined really by the massive car park and high wall separating the castle from any public view unless you may the highly exorbitent price. Being cyclists, we can stop at places where cars have no chance, and we had the best views from high above looking down over the castle, and avoided the massive charges and queues of people. From there we followed Loch Ness for its full length heading for the Lch village of Fort Augustus.

Some 6 miles from Fort Augustus, we came to the little village of Invermoriston, which has a small shop, but a beautiful old bridge across the river at the bottom of Loch Ness. We shouted something like 'coffee' to break the time up before our final leg. I stopped for a photo, Julie went around the corner for the bridge, and I thought she just cycled on. So I then cycled around the corner and saw no sight of her, and I took photos off the bridge, before setting off after her. I rode the fastest 10k to Fort Augustus of our 3000k journey and caught no sight of her, not knowing that she had wheeled around the corner into a car park at Invermoriston, to look for the coffee shop. Realising that I was not there, she set off after me, and I didn't know that she was chasing me!

I got to Fort Augustus with no sign of her, parked my bike in the middle of the street, and walked into the TIC, when a very puffing Julie pulls up just minuts after me. Realising what we had both done, we had a great laugh, both of us breaking our 'pb's - the fastest 10k of the whole journey. We slept well at the beautiful camping ground with magnificent views of stunning mountains all around.

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