DAY 11 Tain to Thurso

Today’s mission if you chose to accept it is to ride from Tain to Thurso….. Simples. A reasonably short day so decided to have another touristy day and find a castle then maybe a coffee .
The Castle we found was off the main road and down a hill . Never a good omen for me but focus its all Strava miles 🙂
So anyway Dunrobin castle was closed and we couldn’t hang around for an hour for it to open so we set off . And to be honest the Sutherlands didn’t sound like a nice bunch to me as alledgedly people still spit when there name is mentioned !!!

It’s ok don’t panic cake and coffee was found in a bakers in Brora . Highly recommend the bakers we stopped at and they were Scottish bakers of the year so praise indeed . And yes we double caked …… High five !!!

We followed the east coast along now to Helmsdale and turned left to take the road which cuts up to Thurso. This road is approx 40 miles long and has to be one of the most stunning but bleak roads in the country . The scenery and horizon with the mountains is so big and such an expanse you can quite easily ride 10 miles and barely anything changes . It can be depressing and delightful at the same time ….. Weird .
One major thing to note on this road is although the river is flowing up , the road is downhill all the way for 40 miles . This according to the Cleminator but to be honest Shap probably felt downhill to the Cleminator .

Our lunch stop was in an amazing location on a day like today but not a place to be during rough weather I would expect as it was so exposed . It was also a good spot for a sniper so it would seem from Clems reaction !!

After lunch we continued on the longest road in the world and I was having temperature issues struggling to get warm so had to keep stopping to add layers .

We then became bored and had to find silly things to amuse ourselves like this gate which had no purpose we could see apart from keeping us amused.

Progress was slow and myself and Liam decided a certain member of our group needed a little time to themselves , mostly cos we were scared !!!!
After 40 or so miles we finally had a junction we forked right and then the hills began . It was a tough headwind past the Dounray power station and then the hardest downhill into the wind into Thurso .

Last day tomorrow an only 28 Ish miles so maybe an extra beer tonight to celebrate whilst we put the worlds to rights .

Today’s stats

88.7 miles 6hrs 54 3317ft 12.mph

Ps

Hissy fits by a certain rider – 2
Pointless gates – 1
Imaginary soldiers shot by sniper -0