923 Miles / 1486 km
Well…. today. As soon as I woke up I knew It wasn’t gonna be a good day. As soon as I woke up from a mere 4 hours of sleep. the girls in the dorm last night/this morning were a nightmare. Firstly, two of them decided that at 11pm it was a great time to sort through their packs, unpack and repack. Whilst the other 8 in the dorm are clearly in bed trying to sleep. They are still packing at 11.30pm with the lights and everything still on. A very grumpy me who’s been trying to sleep since 10, gets up, turns the light off in the hope of giving them one nice big hint that its late and everyone is sleeping. They soon stop sorting their bags and go to sleep. 4.30am comes around – the girl on the bunk above me, is having some fit/choking/vomiting episode. Startles everyone awake, and luckily her friend had gotten up to help/deal with her. I’m not really sure what it was but she was vomiting for a couple more hours, sometimes making it the bathroom, other times just puking into a towel on her bed. Yup, gross. But I wouldn’t have wanted to be her, and my grumpy self didn’t want any part of what was going on, or did I want to know what was going on. Some on and off napping between 5-7am which meant for a very groggy start to my morning. Coffee and breakfast at 7.15 and I was out and loading my bike up by 8. My body was exhausted. My mind was exhausted. My body hurt and it ached, and my ankle was screaming at me. I did not want to get on the bike, and I did not want to ride 68 miles.
So before I leave Fort William, there were a couple of little places I wanted to check out first. The homage to curling they had on display just off the side of the road which I saw on my way to Nevis a couple of days ago – but was too tired to venture down to it. And ‘Neptune’s Staircase‘ just out of town but on my route for today.
The installation/feature/homage representing the sport of Curling was cool, reminded me of my ol’ Fort nelson Curling Club friends (haha) The curling ponds were put here because it was considered ideal for Curling as it catches the frost. Games were played there until 1970. Since then, the ice became a problem – being so close to sea level, and the players were frustrated with waiting for the ice to form that they packed their curling stones and brooms onto ponies and headed up the side of Ben Nevis to a place called Lochan Meall about 700 metres above sea levels where condition were perfect and games would last for hours!
Neptune’s Staircase, Now this would have been cool to fly the drone over! A flight of 8 canal locks on the Caledonian Canal!
Today’s Ride
So the ride today even though it was gonna be long, it was gonna be alongside the beautiful – and long – Loch Ness! i had decided to take the main A28 road over the The Great Glen – which although looked beautiful it was cycle paths, and I knew from experience that these were so much more work than the main roads. Today wasn’t a day I wanted to mess around on shitty paths, no matter how great the scenery was suppose to be. The ride from Fort William to Fort Augustus wasn’t too bad, although there were a couple of long hills to conquer. This wasn’t going down very well with my legs. The weather was mostly dry but it was cold – I had to put an extra layer on, and find my warmer gloves. My body just couldn’t stay warm, no matter how much i was moving and how many layers I was putting on. Between Fort William and Fort Augustus was the Spean Bridge – where I after I crossed and climbed the hill following it gave an awesome view of the Nevis Range! It was my last peek at Ben Nevis before riding down into Fort Augustus.
Fort Augustus is the foot of the Loch Ness. A quaint little town, obviously built for all those tourists coming to see the ‘monster’.
Some fun Loch Nessy Facts:
- The lake is 36.2 kilometers (22.5 miles) long and 2.7 kilometers (1.7 miles) wide at its widest point.
- Its deepest point is 230 meters (755 feet), making it the second deepest lake in Scotland after Loch Morar.
- It’s the largest lake by Volume in the UK.
- Loch Ness was formed approximately 10,000 years ago, towards the end of the last Ice Age, when the Great Glen was filled by a huge glacier.
- Cherry Island is the only island in Loch Ness. It is a crannog, which is a form of artificial island. Most crannogs were constructed during the Iron Age.
- Loch Ness is thought by some to be the home of the Loch Ness Monster (also known as “Nessie“), a cryptid, reputedly a large unknown animal. Some say it’s a myth; others say it’s a living dinosaur or even a sea serpent that swam into the lake before it became landlocked.
Cycling along Loch Ness I knew was going to be as flat as I hoped. Having driven some of it last year i knew it was full of up and downs. Mostly manageable and I was wishing I had more energy for the ride today. The Loch was beautiful and the weather mostly held out to give me a good afternoon. But I was struggling. The 22 miles of the Loch were long, and my little legs just didn’t want to play ball. It took me almost 3 hours to clear the length of the Loch, and then I knew I was home bound.
And then again… a rainbow appears over the end of the Loch. They seem to keep appearing just as I need them on my rides…
7 Miles till Inverness. The last bit of the ride was flat, and with the end in sight I found some energy to keep peddling. I arrived at my hostel at 5. Time to eat, rest, and finally do some laundry 😛 haha!
Inverness seems like a fun city, and Ill get to spend the morning here tomorrow as I wont be riding till the afternoon to Tain. hopefully a nice easy shorter ride tomorrow!
