Today was a bit of a rush to start with, up fairly early and finishing packing up the panniers - I had separated out the things brought for the stay at mum's beforehand in a rucksack - this would be left in the car to be picked up on the way home.
Saying goodbye to Gran and the other relatives still around, we were on our way just after 9. We had to drop my brother off in Inverness to get his bus home before heading to Dingwall for the train at 11.30.
A couple of larger vehicles slowed us down a little, but we made it to Inverness in good time arriving around 10.30. We dropped off David, and I also took a minute to pick up our tickets and bike reservation for the train from Mallaig on Thursday. Heading off again we made it to Dingwall station just after 11, got the bikes and our gear sorted and were on the platform for 20 past.
It turned out that a coachload of visitors were also getting the train, but we made it on ok with the bikes and managed to snag the last sandwich off the refreshment trolley not having packed any lunch! Chatting to the conductor we found out that he had done a similar trip in the opposite direction last year. He and the hostess were both very friendly and we spent a few minutes talking before finding our seats.
Once sitting down we got chatting to the couple sitting opposite us. They were over from Sweden on holiday. They wete lovely and the 2 hour journey passed swiftly in conversation with them. All in all a good start to our holiday!
On reaching Kyle of Lochalsh, we made our way to my Aunt and Uncles airbnb place, to be enthusiastically met by Dex the collie and Aunt Yvonne. Tonight's bnb guests were having a day on Skye, and we were to be in the attic room. We moved our things up the stairs and stopped for a cuppa before heading out for a look around.
We decided to head towards the bridge and check out the beginning of our ride tomorrow. We went as far as the top and then back down to Kyle.
We realised that we had forgotten to take any pictures to start off our trip! We headed back to the station to get a picture and stopped at the co-op to pick up dinner and some snacks for the road. Coming out of the coop we were surprised to find cars backed up from the exit back into the car park. Walking our bikes down the road we soon understood why - the road was blocked by another vehicle. And after another minute we found out the reason. 3 huge vehicles went past carrying blades for wind turbines. I've never been as close to one before. They are truly massive and had several vehicles escorting them on their journey!
Back at the house we relaxed for a bit before eating dinner and then headed out for an evening walk round The Plock - a community owned piece of land with a nature trail. The community has plans to build some self catering pods, an outdoor and indoor activity centre and a water sports centre.
It's a beautiful place with fantastic viewpoints over to Skye one of which was a second world war battery point, a really good trail through open heathery peatland, leading through what could easily be an enchanted forest or jungle playground with ferns, gorse and Rowan trees among others. Dex loved the walk, and we really enjoyed it too. Benches are scattered throughout and we followed a couple off offshoots to the fishermans bay, a lovely little cove - home to a couple of rowing boats, and as mum said like something from The Famous 5.
Another offshoot took us to another small bay, this is the old mooring, but along with a couple if wrecks there were several boats tied up that were obviously still in use. Continuing along the trail we came to another open patch of ground which was originally a golf course, this was not maintained and is now the planned location for the pods I mentioned earlier. The community are currently raising funds for the first part of this, if you want more info or to donate, you can find it here -
https://www.lochalsh.uk/projects/plock-of-kyle/masterplan/
Coming out of this we were back on the road. And 10 minutes later we were back in the house for some strawberries and creme fraiche, a wee cheeky GnT and a couple of episodes of the chase before bed!
Its been a lovely day to start us off. Looking forward to getting on the bike tomorrow!
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