Into the wild westerlies

Day 2:

Thurso to Lairg – 79.6 miles

Planned mileage: 79.6 miles

Actual mileage: 82ish – inaccuracies of B&B locations on mapping & going into Tongue

Cycling time: approx 6 hrs 45 mins (it felt like a very, very long time!)

Route: http://gb.mapometer.com/cycling/route_1512914.html

Accomodation: Highland Croft House - http://www.lairghighlandhouse.co.uk/

We have several thousand miles of cycle touring under our belts (or tyres) and today was probably the toughest day of any of them. It started out innocently enough, though there was a bracing breeze right from the start and the sky, while bright enough in Thurso, had plenty of dark clouds racing around. We paused to buy a new battery for Jenny's cycle computer (though it still didn't work) and set off at about 10:15. Right away we were heading into that incessant westerly wind and we made what seemed like slow progress in the bright sunshine. Little did we know what was ahead of us.

In full waterproof gear - much needed!

Today's route was essentially on one road, the A836, though we did pick up a B road for the first few miles out of Thurso, until just west of the Dounreay nuclear installation. We followed the A836 for many miles through not many places but with views of sandy bays. All the time battling with the headwind. And then it started to rain. Not the gentle precipitation of Edinburgh (?) but great big buckets of rain which stung our faces and got us pretty wet quite quickly. Fortunately we were well equipped, so out came the overtrousers, overshoes, helmet covers and waterproof covers for our bar bags. By the time we got to Bettyhill, about 30 miles into our day, we were cold and tired and definitely in need of the products offered by the nice-looking cafe. Unfortunately the nice-looking cafe was closed today, due to family commitments. We commiserated with another cyclist who looked even colder and wetter than we were, and headed on our way west. There was a village shop just up the hill which advertised hot food and drinks, so we popped in there for hot chocolate, a pie/pasty and a Fry's peppermint cream. That's the good thing about a cycling holiday – you can eat all that and not feel guilty.

Incredible views over the Kyle of Tongue

We continued on the 13 miles to Tongue and again were rewarded with more great coastal views (understatement of the century – the scenery is totally, totally stunning), a little bit more sunshine and more of that westerly gale.

Arrived at Tongue at about 2:45 and discovered that the post office cum shop cum cafe didn't do lunches, so we tried one hotel, which had finished serving lunches, but fortunately were directed to the Tongue Hotel which turned out to be a real find: comfortable, cosy, welcoming and serving excellent food – what more could you ask for? We had a nice chat over lunch with a motorcyclist from Reading who had come up from Ullapool earlier in the day and then very reluctantly went back out to our bikes – we could so easily have checked in to the hotel and not moved for the rest of the day.

We pressed on. We were now heading south, and the wind appeared still to be right against us. 40 miles to go and it was about 4 in the afternoon – not a good place to be. It was quite bright to start with but as we started to climb, and the landscape became bleaker and bleaker, ominous clouds started to gather and perhaps an hour later it started to rain again, much as it had in the morning with the large drops whipped into our face by the strengthening wind. We continued to climb for mile after mile and then the sky turned black and it started to pour. The rain was battering into us and off us, and the wind just got wilder. At times we were in our lowest gear just to keep going. Not nice.

Then, as we reached the top of this 20 mile climb, the wind seemed to change direction (or we did) and, helped by the start of the descent to Lairg, our speed increased considerably. It was getting dark when we arrived eventually at Lairg, we were cold, tired and hungry, so we just headed straight to the nearest hotel and rapidly ordered then ate a very good meal. The tomato and herb soup was just sooo good! We headed out into the dark and cycled the remaining mile or so to our B&B, which we eventually found, it's still very windy and raining every so often, but we are now full of dinner, clean and dry, and nice and cosy. Good night!