Stage 1 complete!!

We awoke at 5.30am to fabulous weather. Clear blue skies and only light winds. It was pretty cold being so early in the morning (and of course being in the topmost part of Scotland! So we donned our thick base layers and cycle jackets and walked down from the campsite to The Last House where we were to start our ride. After many a photo we set off at 6.52am, a little later than planned! We took the A836 along the top of Scotland, meandering along the coastline. The views were spectacular and we saw so many different birds including Oyster Catchers, Linnets, Buzzards and Cuckoos! The road was pretty flat for the first part, stretching out for miles infront. On reaching Betty Hill we had a very long climb ascending over 500m. We then turned away from the coast inland, cycling down towards Altnaharra. All of a sudden the road surface became really bad, being very rough and full of potholes. In addition we now had a strong wind to battle into. We had been successfully maintaining a 16.4mph average and this soon was diminshed to 15.5. We stopped after 60 miles to have a refuel in the form of a chocolate oat cake. Despite the hard going on the road we were amply rewarded by the stunning surroundings, particularly down the side of the Naver Loch. We saw more buzzards, one of which was directly above us sitting on a telegraph wire! After about 75 miles we had another long ascent which although being easier than the early morning climbs was rather more tiring due to our waning energy levels. Our drink supplies were also running out fast. Wearing the rain jackets was obviously a mistake as they were acting like roasting bags in the bright sun! Thankfully from about Crask Inn onwards it was downhill all the way! I was on my tri bars for most of it, picking up some good speed to make up for the earlier slowness! We finally hit the Woodend Campsite at 13.53 making our 95 mile journey in 7 hours 1 minute. To our surprise we had beaten our 'support vehicle' (Pete's Mum and Dad!) to the campsite which was rather annoying as they had the food! We were starving! After a brief phone call and finding out they were over 45 mins away, the lovely campsite owner came and invited us into her house for ham rolls, cake, biscuits and tea! She was literally a God send!! When the cavalry did arrive we fuelled up again on pasta, kitkat chunkies, apples and tea! According to the bike Garmin we'd burnt over 5000 calories!! That's 2.5 days worth of food!!

Tomorrow should be a bit shorter, 77.3 miles. One very big climb to contend with though and the likelihood of rain....