Inveraray. Fantastic scenary, good road surfaces (9/10), wind not too
strong for long.
Hardest Day: Carlisle to Prestwick. Rubbish night sleep in a grotty
B&B, grumpy people, horrible route out of town mixing it with the big
trucks, lousy road surfaces (2/10), the most horrendous headwind. Good
lunch spot and great picnic (thanks Mike_S and Dean)
Prettiest place: Glen Coe, Glen Orchy, Loch Eck, Preston Cycle Track,
Lancaster Canal, N.Cornish Coast,
Worst short-cut: Caledonian Canal along the crazy paving. Near Fort Augustus
Best short-cut: Glen Orchy. Forced to go a long round due to road
closure this short cut was spectacular, steady even climb, and did not
waste the ascent with pointless decent.
Worst excuse for being tired. "I'm not tired, just fed up with my gears"
Best climb: Rannoch Moor
Worst climb: Grosmont (nr Monmouth), climbing away from Loch Ness up
toward Beauly. Portowan and Perranporth.. All horrible in their own
way, sometimes just because of their position in the way.
Best digs: Helmsdale or Inveraray.
Worst digs: Carlisle (by a long way) and Abergavenny, Ellesmere.
Longest mile: All the Cornish and Devon ones (like shares prices, the
distance mile marks in C & D went up and down). There is nothing more
dishertening than seeing a signpost telling you the place u r heading
too is now 2 miles further away then the previous one).
Biggest Lie: "follow me, the hotel is just round the corner" from
Mike_s at the end of the hardest day, when it was still 3 miles away.
Shortest mile: the last mile into John O'groats. And the 100m's we
went from a 20 mile break, where we found a cafe just round the next
corner and decided to stop again.
Funniest Moment: Mike_W falling off before we even started in front of
a very professional looking group of cyclists. Simon busting for a
pee being told he could have one at the top of the climb, but every
turn revealed another climb - after the 5th bend with another climb
Martin fell off laughing and Woody nearly joined him in the ditch.
Martin on the crazy paving, woody crashinto the hedge for the second
time in 20 mins. But in fairness there are so many contenders here.
Kite award: goes to Mike_W as the man with the most wind.
Best Quote: "oy Simon, where's the cash dispenser". On throwing a pear
core to the ground Dean's comment "an apple tree will grow there
now"..
Worst packing: Coco, forgetting his cycling shoes, not once but twice.
(At this point I apologise for the length of this, but its helping to
keep Woody awake as we drive south. Feel free to move on in your life
to more important things)
Biggest navigation mess up: going up the A6 on-ramp (think big 6 land
dual carriagway, crammed with massive trucks travelling at 70 mph). We
turned round at the top and went down again. Martin and Coco getting
separated and getting lost somewhere between Pontrilis and Ellesmere -
given a choise of 2 roads they went down the called "The Cul De Sac"
My turn to drive.
Bye. For now.
--
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