Tuesday 12th August

After a hard day on monday, we headed to Fort William with the intention to have a rest that afternoon, as well as finding a bike shop and a wifi zone. We had a good ride to Fort William and arrived to find lots of friendly people, a lovely town and some great food. We stayed in a B&B that night and it was bliss to have a double bed, electricity and space to sort everything out. I was feeling much happier and more positive.

Routines

We seemed to spend a considerable amount of time talking about the need to have a routine, mostly so we can get up and on the road before the sun sets again! However the theory is great, but the practice is a bit more higgledy-piggledy...

Wake up, grab nearest items of clothing and run to loo, clamber back into tent and lie back down, contemplate getting up properly and getting dressed into cycling clothes, lie here for another 5 mins, leave tent and light the stove, fill pan with water, boil water and make tea, boil more water and make porridge (without burning it!), eat and drink, do washing up, stuff sleeping bag into tiny bag, roll up thermarest into another tiny bag, put on cycling clothes, have a wash, comb hair, do teeth, pack up tent, gather belongings and re-pack panniers, debate whether to leave waterproofs out or not, fill up water bottles, do stretches and exercises to warm up, go to the loo again, consult map, check radios, set off!

This generally seems to take about 2 hours, which is ages, but everything is quite a faff and takes time to do, plus I'm not much of a morning person as many of you will know!