Day 13: June 26 - Fort Augustus to John O'Groats (From York Press)

Day 13: June 26 - Fort Augustus to John O'Groats

2:47pm Monday 28th June 2010 in Fundraising fun

It's true that cycling over 1000 miles addles the brain as we have had problems remembering where we've been, we only know that we have so many miles to cycle in the day ahead.

Hence the blogs have become a little out of sync and this one covers what should have been our real day 12, Fort Augustus to Altnaharra and then day 13, Altnaharra to John O 'Groats.

Day 12 was to be our longest day with 100 miles to cover. The day didn't start well as Iain Robertson suffered yet another hard boiled poached egg and started to feel picked on as it was his third on the trot whilst we had all enjoyed perfect eggs.

The route took us alongside Loch Ness, and no sign of Nessy, it was all easy cycling for 20 miles until our route took us up a very steep climb out of Drumnadrochit, however we all made it and after our early training in Cornwall we were well prepared.

Our final 15 miles was on a single track road in what felt like the middle of nowhere fortunately there was a hotel in this empty land and we were pleased to finish the run, the only casualty being Mike Nicholas who got his second puncture of the trip.

Indeed Mike was the only one to get any punctures at all which is remarkable and shows how well prepared everyone else was. Steve Loynes decided that after 85 miles he was fully warmed up and started to race so an exhilarating end for some, however we were all greeted by lots of midges.

So our final day had arrived and we left the hotel in sunshine accompanied by the now familiar midges, we had to be careful to cycle with mouths closed. We soon left them behind and had 20 miles of fantastic riding in wonderful country along deserted roads.

We were all in good spirits after all we were nearly there how hard could the rest of the day be?

Well we got to Bettyhill and turned right to head east for the final 50 mile run to John O'Groats and it all changed. First of all the wind found us again and as usual it was in our faces, the very light rain became heavier and heavier, and the road became a roller coaster with big downhill runs that now had to be cycled down due to the wind and unfortunately equally big climbs.

So we just had to slog it out all enjoying the sensation of wet shorts,socks and shoes. After an hour or so the rain stopped but we still had to fight the wind all the way to lunch at Thurso in a well known supermarket where we could dry off and contemplate the final 20 miles.

Replenished we headed off into the wind and reach our final destination at about 4PM.

We were welcomed by our ever attentive support crew and duly had our photo's taken, hugged each other and I don't think any of us could believe that we'd actually arrived, how could 1012 miles have gone so quickly.

We have had great support, Dave Mooney for doing most of the hard work organisationally, Dave and Sue for supporting us all the way, Armstrong - Massey for the vehicle and especially to everyone who has donated money as the total now stands at over £14,500 which will all go to York Against Cancer, so thank you all for that as its been a great motivator.

Now all we have to do is cycle the remaining 17 miles to Wick and our hotel and Gala Dinner!

David Dickson