With our tummies full of porridge from the World Porridge Making Championships village of Carrbridge we departed our B&B and headed up through the forest to begin today’s ride. As we progressed our first climb of the day up the Slochd Summit Mountain Pass we entered misty cloud which turned to rain, so on with wet weather gear.
We have noticed that many of the houses have wood carvings in their front gardens and even public benches are likely to be carved.
At Craggie while passing farming fields we couldn’t resist stopping to look at some unusual sheep. We looked at them, and they looked at us probably thinking “what unusual looking humans!”
Just after Castletown almost in the middle of nowhere on a very quiet country lane a Bronze Age cemetery, Clava Cairns, which dates back 4,000 years remains very well preserved and had visitors walking quietly and with respect between the standing stones and the stone burial cairns.
On the edge of Inverness city centre a baby tandem in the window of Velocity Café caught our eye.
The route took us through the middle of the city centre with hoards of people and onto the path along the River Ness.
We had the much bigger Kessock Bridge to cycle over with The Moray Firth on the east, looking out to sea, and The Beauly Firth on the inland side.
The crossing was very exhilarating and quite surreal to be so high above such an expanse of water.
We were now in The Ross and Cromarty region of Scotland with the cycle path following the route of the A9 north. All we can say about this is that it is a very busy noisy road, but cycle paths although near it were very safe.
Approaching Dingwall the route leaves the A9 and a pleasant fast downhill ride took us into Dingwall where our B&B overlooks Cromarty Firth.
Total distance today 47 miles
Total Hill Climbs today 1,958 ft
