Sunday 10th/ Monday 11th

We left Inverness after a leisurely morning and cycled towards Loch Ness, keeping our eyes peeled for monsters of course. Loch Ness is a huge loch and we cycled alongside it for miles, the rain came down quite heavily, followed by the sunshine to dry us out - the wind coming off the water made it quite hard going despite it being quite flat. After 25 miles we stopped to find somewhere to camp, our aim had been to get to Fort Augustus, but it was getting late and the wind was making progress slow. After 2 attempts at 2 different wild camping spots (only to find that under the moss and grass was solid rock) we rocked up next to some other people camping in one of the Forestrty Commisson picnic areas. This was a great spot, however we didn't realise how low on food we were, so we ate our emergency ration packs which were surpisingly good!

Monday morning kitted out in waterproofs we headed for Fort Augustus, only 11 miles away so we were both keen to get going. After passing Whitebridge we seemed to be going up hill forever and the wind and rain we definitely not on our side. We cycled and cycled in very low gears battling the wind. We were some distance apart and after coming round a bend to see another big hill ahead I was starting to despair, it was just too hard. I reached the top where Chris had been waiting for 15mins or so. It was wet and blowing a gale, so the 'amazing views' were not so amazing and we were both knackered.

We had climbed a long way but 5 miles in 2 hours isn't great, so we were hopeful of a good easy descent, we were not disappointed - it was downhill all the way to Fort Augustus.

We treated ourselves to a nice lunch and a rest.

After visiting the post office to send our old tent home, we set off for Fort William. This part of the journey was ok, but after such a hard morning, my legs had had enough by 5pm and we stopped short of Fort William at a campsite just before Spean Bridge. I was so tired and quite fed up, plus it was raining and then after trying to light the stove to cook, we realised that we had run out of fuel. Chris dashed off to buy some fuel and returned after a 5 mile round trip with some fuel and a bag of chips for me, to cheer me up, bless him.

All in all it was a pretty hard day and I was not feeling very happy.

This much I know

The rain and wind makes cycling a lot less fun. In fact it can make you cry.

"If you start in Scotland, then it's all downhill" this is not strictly true. There are a lots of lovely long descents, but there are also lots of huge hills to climb up which is a mild form of torture, but hey it's worth it for the view, right?

Chris is actually the bionic man and I am starting to believe that the US military have conducted Wolferine-esque experiments on him whilst he wasn't looking. However I did discover today that he is quite scared of bees and wasps, finally a glimmer of weakness!

It's easy to fall out over the little things, we managed to have a mini argument about the best way to attached the radio (walkie talkie) to the handlebars.

Cycling on a near-empty stomach is a very bad idea. We decided to have eggs and bacon for breakfast (well that's 2 rashers of bacon and 2 eggs between us), one egg didn't look too edible when cracked, so I had the good egg and Chris had the bacon. Needless to say, one egg is not enough to fuel you for a morning of cycling.

Porridge is amazing, Water is amazing. Without these cycling would be impossible, Porridge is like rocket fuel and water makes you feel better every time you drink some.

It is possible to stop for a wee at least 20 times a day, sounds ridiculous and we keep joking that I must be setting some kind of world record, the first sign I look for everytime we stop is 'TOILETS'.

Car drivers are impatient. Despite an oncoming truck/coach/car/bike, the car behind me will still rush to squeeze passed rather than waiting an extra 20 secs, even if they risk scaring me half to death and causing me to wobble in the process.

There are more campervans (motorhomes) in Scotland than I have ever seen in the whole of my life. I think there must be a campervan revolution happening that i didn't know about.

Milk is the hardest thing to carry on a bike. Spills, leaks and explosions, it doesn't travel well and once it spills, everything is covered in it and smells gross for days.

Scotland is very beautiful and also very purple, purple flowers, purple heather. When i'm too tired to think about anything, my brain tends to default to thinking about colour, so lots of purple appreciation this week.