Day 13 - Spean Bridge to Contin

It feels that our goal is now close enough almost to touch and spirits are high even though our bodies are starting to reveal their weak spots. I have had problems with my left arm since the first few days which is painful but has not affected my cycling, although it is affected by the cycling (annoyingly I have to have meat cut for me like a kid!). One of my fellow riders’ husband is a GP and early on I asked his advice: lots of rest came the reply. Hmm. Not really too practical in the circumstances! Luckily I have a ready supply of high dose Nurofen (a drug discovered by Boots, an LC4 sponsor, in Nottingham as it happens).

After a hill that was rather larger than fair at the start of the day with we stopped briefly to visit the Commando Memorial just outside of Spean Bridge. It has a perfect view of Ben Nevis and Aonach Mòr and was originally dedicated to the commandos of WWII who trained in the area overlooked by the monument. It is now for all fallen commandos and there were wreaths left very recently by relatives of commandos who had not returned from Afghanistan. A rather poignant moment surrounded by such majestic scenery.

There were two route options today. I went with the route that “only” required 3,500ft (1,000m) of climbs but even this took us to peaks covered in mist so thick we could not see the end of our noses. Down at Loch level we followed the north bank of Loch Ness the full length in blazing sunshine. Disappointingly there we no sightings of Nessie.

At Inverness I was able to meet up with the Mautner family, good friends from London. They claimed “to be on holiday in the area” but I had the impression that this was just good cover for a mission on behalf of all my sponsors to check that (i) I actually own a bicycle; (ii) that I know how to ride it; and (iii) that Max has not been photo-shopping me onto an appropriately located background every evening so I can post a convincing blog. Whatever the motivation, it was a lovely surprise and a chance to escape from the LC4 bubble (as we are all now calling it since the vice chancellor's last blog).

After Inverness we briefly skirted the North Sea. It was so hot that Doug and I decided to test the water. So much warmer than the Bay of Biscay I am used to at this time of the year.

We arrived surprisingly early at our accommodation and for the first time I had to wait for the support team to arrive with my bags – something about a life-or-death deviation that happened to pass a distillery (possibly one missing from the VC’s extensive whisky collection?!).

Another 77 miles (123km) on the clock. That leaves only 200 miles (320km) to go...plus a hill or two.