Day 4 - To Inverness Take 2

Day 4 - To Inverness take 2!

So anyone who followed the blog last year knows that my mum and I didn't quite make it to Inverness - but we promised each other we would come back and finish it off this summer - this time routing round the south side of Loch Ness!

The date was set for Saturday the 10th of August, and we would do the 33 miles from Fort Augustus to Inverness following route 78 - which is what we should have done the first time round.

The prep was minimal it was just one day's cycling after all.

The one issue we had was logistical. There is no train station at Fort Augustus, and generally you can't take bikes on buses, so how could we get there with the bikes? The only way we could work out was to drive there, leave the car, cycle to Inverness, leave the bikes, bus it back to Fort Augustus, pick up the car, and then drive back to Inverness - all a bit of a faff...but if that's what we needed to do then we would do it.  I turned to the Women's Cycle Forum group on Facebook for advice. Unfortunately the suggestions were pretty much what we had already considered - a bike transfer service that would cost us a lot more than the petrol would if we drove ourselves, train? not an option. but one comment struck me - someone said the coach buses would take bikes but they might need to be in a bike bag. I looked up buses from Inverness to Fort Augustus, and it turned out there was a City Link Coach I contacted them and yes they would take bikes but only in a bag or box.

I knew from others and previous experience that individual drivers might allow us on without them, but I discussed it with mum and she agreed we should get bike bags just to be safe - they were only a tenner each, and could be reused in future. The next issue was the connection. The train I was booked on from Edinburgh got to Inverness at 8.05pm. The bus from Inverness was at 8.15pm. I would have 10 minutes max to get around from the train to the bus and bag the bike - doable as the stations in Inverness are about a minute apart, but as anyone living in the UK knows relying on a train service getting you to where you wanted to be on time is a risky business!

Sure enough, as I was waiting on the train it was announced it would be 4 minutes late, then 6, then 8. Finally it arrived over 11 minutes late. Would the time be made up on the journey? I asked the conductor about the likelihood of this and he said there was a slight chance but he couldn't say for sure.

Meanwhile, the bike bags hadn't been delivered to mum as they should have been. I contacted the supplier by email, but there wasn't much we could do as she had to leave home for Inverness herself in the early afternoon. We would have to chance it with the driver - if my train was on time. Mum called me about 8pm. 'Where are you?' she asked 'I don't know exactly' I said, 'pretty sure we are still running late though, the train has been stopped for southbound services to pass a couple of times' I was pretty sure that I wouldn't be there for 8.15.  'Well, the bus is here and I've spoken to the driver and she will take the bikes without bags'. The driver had made it clear that the policy was they should be in bags, mum explained the delivery issue, and since there was little else in the way of luggage the driver had agreed to make an exception.  When we hung up I checked the arrival times for Inverness station on my phone and texted mum. I'm not going to make it, I told her, the arrivals board is saying we get in at 8.19. No reply, but at 8.19 I got another phone call. 'Where are you? The driver is holding the bus!' What? 'She's holding the bus?? That's amazing! I'll head to the carriage closest the bike storage so I can get it and round to the bus station as soon as we stop.'

I had just started talking to the girl next to me and told her about our trip, sorry I said now, they are holding the bus! I need to get round there as quick as I can. We were on one of the LNER trains which has a separate carriage for bikes and bulky luggage, this one was right at the front. I headed as far up the train as I could, and was off as soon as the train stopped. The conductor was already unloading, and I grabbed my bike and headed round to the bus station - now 10 minutes late and hoping they hadn't had to leave after all, as I rode round mum was standing at the corner watching for me, the bus was still there, luggage compartment up and ready, I jumped off grabbed my pannier, and thanked the driver for waiting while I quickly lifted the bike in. As we got on the bus mum apologised to the passengers and thanked them for being patient.  'You owe us all a drink!' one of them called, 'yes, it's all been written up by a lawyer and everything' another one said  we all laughed, and we were on our way. Only in the highlands. I asked mum later if the driver had asked the passengers if they minded waiting 'she didn't so much ask them as tell them we were waiting on someone coming on a train that was running late' she said. Our main hurdle crossed, we relaxed and chatted our way through the journey.

That night we were booked into Morag's Lodge, a very welcoming and comfortable hostel in Fort Augustus. It's a rambling building, with a bar, self catering kitchen and big comfy couches you can sprawl in. There was also a piano in the reception area which someone began to play, and books on most of the windowsills. All in all, a nice place. (Although take a tin opener if you are self catering and need tins - they didn't have one for us to make the tuna sandwiches we had planned for lunch!). After a quick shower to freshen up we headed downstairs with the bottle of Prosecco mum had brought - not knowing there was a bar on site! The cork was off with a pop and we toasted each other. We polished off the bottle, had one in the bar and headed to bed relaxed and ready for the ride next day.

We were up and ready to leave by around 9.30 - the hostel also having provided a continental style breakfast at a slightly additional cost to the room. We handed in our key cards, unlocked the bikes and we were off!

The first bit of the route coming out of Fort Augustus follows a quiet B road past fields of sheep (and in one a couple of pheasants!) The Loch safely on our left hand side we enjoyed heading into open country.  But we soon hit the first of the slopes. I knew from the route planner that there were 2 ascents involved on this side, but I hadn't realised we would hit the first one quite so quickly. I had said to mum that I hadn't done much more than 20-30 miles in one day for the last few months - most of my free time was taken up with my MA project, finally submitted the day before,  she responded by telling me she hadn't been on the bike in a year - since our previous attempt! Oh well. we would manage anyway.

South end of Loch Ness Just outside Fort Augustus

The weather was pretty much perfect cycling weather, dry, not cold, but not hot either, a little cloudy, but still with some blue in there, not much wind to speak of except for the occasional refreshing breeze. All in all it was a great day for it. Considering the day before had been downpours we were pretty lucky. With much starting and stopping, and getting on and off again, we climbed the 1200 or so feet of the ascent. Looking back part way up we got a really decent view of Fort Augustus behind us before the route turned away from the water for a bit. Bye Bye Loch Ness, see you in a while!

As the road climbed the terrain on either side changed between windblown trees and open marshland with broom and yellow wart in abundance along the side of the road. We reached Loch Tarff - a reservoir - sooner than I expected given we had walked a good portion of the climb.



It is a beautiful spot, with the water on one side and open ground on the other. we paused just after the Loch to let a car pass, and spotted some deer - on the hill rising above us a group of 6 young stags were grazing on the grass amongst the heather. 

There are Deer in here somewhere! 

Carrying on the climb became a bit easier, still with an upward trend, but undulating more. We were still stopping occasionally to catch out breath, and at one point a car came by the driver and passenger both giving us an encouraging thumbs up - I soon saw why, we had paused just a little way from the top. As we crested the rise the view opened out before us, a landscape  of hills, water and signs of human habitation lay before us. It was a recognised stopping point with space for cars to park and a short walk marked. We stopped for a little bit and just admired the scenery of rolling hills, open country dotted with lochs, remains of long ago settlements from the picts right through to the present. The highlands truly are a map of the history of Scotland.

From here, we could see a good portion of the road ahead of us, still undulating, but this time with a downward trend, and still with that fabulous view. It proved the mantra I had shared with mum on the climb up (and that I've mentioned before). Worth it for the View, Worth it for the Downhill. I repeat this to myself when I am really struggling up a long climb. Coming down the other side of the hill was fabulous, barely peddling for a good couple of miles. it wasn't long before we passed Whitebridge and then turned towards the falls of Foyers. A couple of miles through shaded pine forest down and up again a little brought us to the Falls of Foyers Cafe, where we decided to stop for lunch.

Made it to the top! Just look at that view....

The photo's really don't do it justice. 

We shared a salmon and cream cheese bagel, and a pulled pork panini between us (along with one of the most tasty and varied side salads I have ever seen accompanying a sandwich!), and spotted that the ice cream shack was selling Capaldi's of Brora icecream! Brora is the next village along from Helmsdale where my mum lives, and is on the far northeast of Scotland. We didn't expect to find their delicious  ice cream goodness in this tiny little place. We bought a cone each and took the short walk down to the falls of Foyer, the fall was pretty, but quieter than we had expected given all the rain the day before, and someone else there told us it had been gushing over the top a couple of days prior.  we headed back towards the bikes, and after a quick pee and a top up of the water bottles we were on our way again.

Capaldi's Icecream in Foyers! Who would have thought...

The road from Foyers was still heading downhill as from here we would be following the waters edge for the next few miles. We soon found ourselves back on the shores of Loch Ness, looking across the water at the mountain we had been up last year. We agreed that this years attempt was much less trying. and enjoyed the views and the relatively flat tarmac beneath our wheels. The road was a little busier than I expected, but most of the cars (with the usual odd exception) gave us a good amount of room - although as a lot of this stretch was single track there wasn't a huge amount of space available, and we frequently pulled in to passing places to let a car or 2 go by us. We also found that cars coming towards us didn't tend to slow/wait at passing places til we were safely by, which was somewhat frustrating given most of the time we were literally 2-5 metres away from one. Not far out of Foyers we met a backpacker sitting by the side of the road - he was heading towards Foyers from Dores in search of a shop and a post office, and was trying to decide whether to carry on, or head back the way he had come. We couldn't really help him with that not having visited the shop at Foyers, but mum offloaded the tin of tuna to him that we had planned to have on our sandwiches but couldn't open because of a lack of a tin opener in the hostel (although we didn't for one second regret our lunch in Foyers instead!) We carried on and soon saw Urquhart Castle and Drumnadrochit across the water, finding the going much easier now that the major climb was behind us.

Coming along beside the water - the view beside us varied between trees ferns and open water 

Urquhart Castle is in the background there somewhere....

Looking at the map we were expecting another sharp climb just after Dores, but this never really materialised, instead the route took us away from the road on a path and quiet back roads, with a very gradual climb up, and an equally gradual descent into Inverness. We knew we had made it when we came across the Nessie roundabout, and it wasn't long before we were in the city centre having our photo taken at the Terminus sign! It had only taken us a year and a bit, but we had finally completed our Caledonian canal adventure!

We made it!   The terminus of NCN Route 78