One Day to Go

I love being in a nice B&B as I love a proper breakfast. Freshly baked bread, porridge, a cooked breakfast and a bottomless cup of coffee. Our hosts Richard and Claire at Kinloch were amazing. Nothing was too much trouble. I have my coast to coast bike ride next week so rather than head out to Applecross with the gang, I went out on a solo MTB ride.

The road from Shieldaig to Torridon was pretty tough as it's hilly and there was a rather strong headwind. Not the best with a full suss knobbly tired MTB. It wasn't long until I got on to the first off-road section....mainly fire road....but still bumpy enough to make me nervous about having my camera in my camelbak! The coastline was stunning. While riding through a beautiful rhododendron grove, a brown wild goat with curly horns leaped out in front of me.....I chased the git as it had given me such a fright; however, there was only going to be one winner. Fortunately, as a vegetarian, I decided to spare the goat's life!

On reaching Torridon I turned back towards Shieldaig and then off round Loch Damh. It started off with a nice fast fire road but after a few km, I found myself on a challenging (for me with my posh camera) single-track. I took a slight tumble when my wheel got caught in a rut, and using a contorted tumble managed to avoid damaging the camera. It was quite an overcast grey day but the cumulonimbus clouds added to the atmosphere of the surrounding mountains. At the end of the loch, I had to ford a quick raging torrent then ascend a precipitous climb up to the A896. The final leg down to the B&B was relatively simple. Fortunately, there was little rain, despite what looked like a substantial threat.

I was half expecting the gang to be back at the B&B but it wasn't that far off 3pm when the race briefing was being held. After a quick square of tablet and a bag of crisps (optimal training nutrition), I time-trialled back to Torridon as fast as I could. Some of the hills were tough but I was in the zone. The gang passed me in the car, but Rosemary's mum thought it would be dangerous to give me a tow.....no sticky bottle for me.

Although I was offered a lift back home, I chose to ride and had some fun doing most of it off-road. Having missed lunch, I was famished by dinner time. We were joined at dinner by some fellow guests, one of whom was an old training mate Hugh McInnes. Dinner was amazing home cooked fare and the tattie n leak was the best I've ever tasted. Hugh was a heathen, adding tomato sauce to his fish pie.

After a few final last moment jobs, it was an early night as we were going to have to be up at 3am the next morning. Very proud of Rosemary for being so relaxed the day before the big race.