Day 3 accomplished!

Day 3 and 93.4 miles to Inverarnan.

Today was always the day I was not looking forward to, mainly as it was originally planned to be 106 miles long, but also because 3 days into the ride I knew we'd be starting to seriously ache!! (I was also rather worried about how my hand was going to perform after straining it the day before.) Luckily the first issue was made a lot better as the mileage was now set at 93 miles. They were however 93 very long and arduous miles!! From the elevation we'd seen of the route the first 55 miles looked to be relatively flat. It actually turned out to be rather up and down with a very strong head wind much of the way!! It was very slow progress, and we were achieving only a 14.5 mph average. The views however more than made up for the effort! The route took us down the rest of the length of Loch Ness, through Fort William, and along the side of Loch Linnhe. The mountains skirting the Loch were amazing and got even more impressive as we rounded past Ballachulish and up into the Glencoe Valley. Here we were expecting a steep climb but instead the road gently inclined to 1142 ft. We had mountains towering on either side completely dwarfing us. We saw some climbers that looked like little specks! We cycled past 2 of the mountains that I'd climbed back in January on my moutaineering trip! They looked a lot less snowy than back then but were still just as impressive. Some of them still had patches of snow high up in the ravines. Once we'd climbed to 1142ft the terrain evened out and we cycled for another 10 miles or so over what was like a giant plateau with mountain peaks rising up on all sides and tarns dotted everywhere. We saw an Eagle soaring up above us too! The wind came and went but got really strong at points enough to almost stop you in your tracks! At about 82 miles we started descending down to the Bridge of Orchy and through Tyndrum. It was a chance to finally get some speed up after the days slow ride and I reached over 33mph. The wind still slowed me down a lot though. We rounded one sharp bend and got taken by some fierce crosswinds which made my bike start snaking! The last few miles were hard work, going up and down and constantly battling the wind. Past Crianlarich we kept on the A82 and finally arrived at our campsite at Inverarnan at about 13.40 with an average speed of 15mph. Unfortunately we'd once again beaten the campervan so had to buy some crisps and mars bars from the shop at the site to refuel ourselves before they arrived! Thankfully my left hand had held up during the day. I had to avoid changing gears with it though and instead had to reach my right hand across to do it which made for ligh entertainment. I managed to throw my chain off during a particularly clumsy gear change!! 

Tomorrow we have a slightly shorter day at around 89miles, taking us down past Glasgow to Abington. The weather is looking to get warmer and sunnier too! Hurray!! :o)