Inverness to Pitlorchy 25-26 July

What started as a flat tyre turned out to be a delaminated tyre which had 2 separate splits. I had been very lucky that I had not suffered a blowout the day before. I rode very gingerly into Muir of Ord where Sally sampled a wee dram at the local distillery. We wandered around the visitors centre reading up on the whisky making process before heading to Beauly. We had intended to phone one of our previous hosts to ask for advice on the nearest bike shop. As we approached the town a lady on a bike was coming the other way. It was with whom we had stayed 3 weeks ago, She invited us over for a coffee and

cake and we phoned several bike shops in Inverness before we found one that had a suitable tyre for us. She also suggested a different route into Inverness which was much quicker, flatter, and less traffic. It ran alongside the inlet, Every couple of kilometres we would stop and check the split which was getting slowly worse. We nursed it as far as Charlestown where we stopped for lunch at a café. The food was superb.
As we were eating three ladies came to pay their bill. We chattted for about 10 minutes and then they went on their way. The table opposite decided to talk as well and we had yet another discussion about Scotland and cycling. We laughed a lot as he cracked jokes all the time. We finally crossed the bridge and found the bike shop. They fitted the new tyre and a new inner tube as well while we waited.

While in town we went to the train station and booked our seats for the next day. We were a bit behind and rather tired so we had

decided to treat ourselves to an easy day. We headed back out of town to Kirkhill to our host for the night, Alan, who had worked in New Zealand for several gears and in Antarctica looking after the scientists on the field trips into the snow.

He was the third host in the same location in three weeks so Kirkhill and Beauly treated us well while we were there. The evening was spent talking about New Zealand , Antarctica, and his many bike. It reminded us of an evening in France we have nicknamed 8 o'clock, 9 o'clock, 10 o'clock when we laughed so much it made us cry. A good time was had by all.

The next day we returned to Inverness at full speed with the wind behind us and my new tyre which added about 25 per cent more speed for the same effort. The old tyre had been slowing me down for a while without me realising.
We boarded our train with the help of the platform staff with the bikes at one end, one bag in the middle and another bag at the other end of the carriage. The people seated opposite were from Glasgow and very chatty. He was a real hoot and the 2 hours just wizzed by. After the last station before our stop he suggested we gather all the bags together and put them by the door as no one would be using that space. I like a little bit of local knowledge. At Pitlorchy we asked for help to get the bikes while I unloaded all the bags. The train staff were very helpful. We found the hostel easily and settled in for a pleasant night.