Saturday, June 24, 2017
Lairg to Tongue, Scotland
37 miles, 1,729 feet of climbing
First, may I just say that, now that we're at the penultimate day of our tour, I'm very glad to know that we are done staying in towns with names that are hard to pronounce.
Today's ride was the shortest ride day of the tour, but it was not without its challenges. The direction of our route was generally north-northwest, however, we rode with a fierce 25-mile per hour wind from the west-southwest that had me, at times, creeping along at 12 miles per hour. Then there were the gusts, which tried to knock me off my bike several times. Fortunately, there were times when our route turned in a direction where the wind was favorable, and we were able to cruise along at a good clip. But when we turned into the wind, even briefly, the wind would push my bike sideways. If there was a gust, I had to have both hands on the handlebars or else I was going to lose control of the bike.
The only constant about today's weather was the wind: temperature, sun, clouds and rain were variable. We started the ride under partly cloudy but mostly blue skies. Within seconds, dark clouds would roll in and rain drops would fall briefly, until the sun would pop out again and warm things up. This cycle would repeat itself over and over throughout the ride. Despite the wind and the fluctuating weather, mile for mile, this was one of the most scenic rides of the tour.
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| Elevation profile of today's ride (does not reflect fierce crosswind) |
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| Rainbow sighting on today's ride |
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| The Kyle of Tongue
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| We had dinner as a group in the hotel dining room |
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| Banoffee (bananas and toffee) pie for dessert! |
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