The penultimate day of our adventure, and the weather was, on the whole, kind to us all day. There was no sign of rain but we did have to contend with a headwind for much of the day. However, on the upside we cycled through some glorious scenery. Compared with other days, the distance was not so great but there were some very significant and long climbs. Nothing too steep but the climb from Bonar Bridge to the Crask Inn, around twenty-five miles averaged out at about 5% and, from my point of view, knackered both battery and rider.
Talking of Bonar Bridge, there were two significant things of note when we stopped there for second lunch. The first was the fact that the car park, which is situated beside the Dornoch Firth, just before you cross over and start the last part of the day’s ride, houses the most revolting toilet block I have ever come across. It is truly revolting! The best way of dealing with it is to take a deep breath before you enter and try to hold it for as long as possible before you are exposed to the foul air inside, which clings to the building like some vile poisonous fog.
By total contrast, the second memorable thing (to me at least) was the fact that, standing waist deep in the fast-flowing waters of the river, there were a number of anglers fly fishing with double handed rods. I watched them eagerly whilst munching on my lunchtime rolls. Their quarry, I guess, were sea trout or maybe salmon. I watched with envy their rhythmic casting. I have caught a good number of rainbow and brown trout fly fishing but never the kind of fish these guys were after. A successful angler walked through the car park carrying a sizable sea trout. My envy level went up a couple of notches. Another thing to at to my “Bucket List”.
After second lunch, we crossed Bonar Bridge and headed up into the hills towards our isolated stop for the night at the Crask Inn. The views that one gets on this wild part of the ride have changed considerably since we first past that way two LEJOGs ago. Back in 2013 a great deal of the land, which had been given over to be a pine tree plantation, had been stripped, leaving the countryside looking like some nightmare vision of a WW1 battle field with twisted stumps of tree roots and little else. Now we found it completely transformed. Removing the tightly packed pine trees, which blocked out any sunlight from the forest floor, causing it to be sterile of any other vegetation, had enabled a veritable resurgence of plant life and small indigenous trees. The whole vista was transformed for the better.
When we arrived at the Crask Inn we were just in time for Evening Prayer, which was a lovely blessing at the end of a hard day. The Crask Inn is now run by the Episcopal Church of Scotland and serves as both a place of hospitality and also of prayer. At the service we were reacquainted with Kai, the elderly woman, who with her husband, used to run the place and now lives in the newly constituted Bunk House, where we stayed the last couple times we did LEJOG. Another addition to the property was a large storage shed built next to the pub. It was there I charged up my Ribble, which I will certainly need for the last leg of the journey tomorrow, as there is quite a lot of climbing involved in the latter part of the day’s ride.
As far as today’s ride was concerned the major problem was not the climbing nor the headwind but the ubiquitous midges, which attack you the minute you stop. These little buggers seem to be able to get you through your clothing. If you can get above around 10mph you leave them behind, drop much below that and you get eaten alive. However, once ensconced in the Crask Inn we left our tiny attackers outside and enjoyed a good meal, some excellent beer and even better whisky. We forgot the midges and tried not to think about the weather forecast for tomorrow, which was not good!
Ezekiel's Wheels 