Wet Wet WET

Day 2, 6th Sept

This is a good summary of todays weather!

Quite a day today - the wet West Coast showed us what it could do, though we did get a bit of sun and warmth too.

We woke up 6:30 as agreed and crept around quietly getting ready. It had rained hard but was now drizzling. We nipped across to the part of the hostel with the kitchen and helped ourselves to a good breakfast. We had been told that the village shop was open at 8 am, so the idea was for John H to set off half an hour early whilst John C and I got the supplies for the day. All was going to plan until we actually turned up at the Durness Spar, which we found was closed until 9 am on a Saturday. Consternation and a bit of flapping about. Both Sian and Tracey were rung to see if they could locate a likely food place using the internet, but "Wifeypedia" let us down, as they were both busy. No locals around to ask either. So we headed off, somewhat concerned and hopeful that we'd find somewhere despite the apparent miles and miles of barren land shown on the map. In the meantime John H had set off and immediately ran into his own personal hail storm... By the time we were on the way it was just rain, fortunately for us.

The first part of the route headed along the banks of Kyle of Durness with the headland of Cape Wrath visible through the mist to our right. It is a big, glaciated landscape with lots of rock that was glistening in the occasional shaft of brightness. The overnight rain meant that every surface was wet and seemed to be leaking water. As we climbed out of the Kyle, we caught sight of John H ahead, clearly waiting to photograph us in action, but also clearly agitated. Then he was on his bike and pedalling off with a cry of "I can't stand the midges anymore!". These annoying tiny critters plagued every stop during the day; they were only missing when it was raining (so we either got bitten or got wet!). The landscape became a massive jumble of rocky, peaty wilderness. Water was everywhere, either as high lochans, rain, or surging streams and rivers. 

At least the wind today was kinder, mostly behind us, but vicious when we happened to turn into it, such as for the stretch into Scourie where we are mightily relieved to find an open shop to buy some lunch (the bread turned out to be delicious!). We got back on the road, secure in the knowledge that lunch would be happening, and immediately started to get glimpses of the big mountains of Sutherland ahead. The road here is twin track now, but when short remnants of the old road showed up on the side of the route, I was reminded of my journey going the other way in 1986 on single track with my brother Andrew.

 Castle in the clouds today

We swept down a descent to fabulous views across the Kylesku bridge which was briefly illuminated by sunshine, before we headed off to the big climb over to Assynt. It is majestic, with the road sweeping across high glaciated valleys and never too steep. We enjoyed the continually changing vistas. Once up we found ourselves on a bit of a plateau as we crossed the huge sloping flank of Quinag. The descent was sharp and we were glad not to be doing it the other way. Loch Assynt was spectacular, with its ruined castle looking placed for visual effect. Then the rain really hit, almost torrential, fortunately driving from behind. Looking for shelter for lunch, we ended up going well past Inchnadamph before the deluge lessened and we came across a wall to shelter behind (cue midges....). Wet and very cold, we huddled round our food, wolfing it down so we could head off as soon as possible. We caught a patch of sunlight which we kept up with for miles, though there were glowering clouds behind and to the front. The spectacular mountains of Canisp and Suilven remained hidden in cloud until we are climbing away past Knockan Crag when we glimpse part of Suilven.

Kylescu bridge in the sun!

John C at the start of the big climb (270m) over to Assynt

By now it was clear that we were going to get to Ullapool in plenty of time so we took the next few rises and falls a bit more easily. Finally we were sweeping down and in to Ullapool itself, straight for the ferry port to get tickets to Stornaway (£9:15 each), find a fish and chips place (one of Ullapool's highlights) and get some food for the Sunday on Lewis (when everything will be closed).

We watched the ferry come in with rainbows over the town. Then we were on board, bikes stowed and making ourselves comfortable in the lounge. The crossing was fine, if a bit rough in places, but nothing remarkable, and was eased considerably by a couple of celebratory drams.

On arrival at 9pm we found the hostel easily and were welcomed in by a very friendly young mum with toddler in tow. The Heb Hostel is to be highly recommended, with its comfortable beds, washing facilities, lockable bike shed and kitchen stocked with breakfast goodies.

John Cs highlight of the day, Fish n Chips in Ullapool 

John Hs highlight was the climb over from Kylescu to Assynt

JRs highlight was the views across Kylescu - which happen to contain one of his favourite bridges. (Yes - he has favourite bridges!)

Today's stats

JRs cycle trip stopped working due to the wet so these are John Cs

Distance 70 miles

Average 11.5 (max. 39.5)

Total climb ?1494m

Energy expended whilst cycling 3796 cals

NB. John Cs altimeter went wonky today due to the wet, so the total climb is wrong. 

The theoretical climb should be 1650 m