There and back again...A carbonauts tale

Lovely morning.

I headed out towards Muir of Ord via Redcastle - the usual work route. Met up with Grant just outside SGL and we pedalled on together towards Dingwall. There we met up with Keith and our honourary carbonaut for the day - Martin Kerr. Bob couldn't make it today due to 'stuff' needing to be done!

From Dingwall we headed out to Evanton via the old road then on to Alness. It was a sharp left on Alness high street and we continued on to Tain, passing Scotsburn on the way.

We managed to stop for 5-10 minutes in Tain - Martin refuelled at the local co-op. From there we continued out East before landing in Portmahomack. We managed a 15-20 minute break there and it was such a nice day in stunning surroundings that I am sure the team would have been happy to sit there much longer..

Grant @ Portmahomack

Keith, after loading up with several Snickers'

Martin Kerr-bonaut

John, photoing himself as no-one else volunteered!

Leaving Portmahomack, we had a slighly more favourable wind to contend with. We took a more southerly route down towards Arabella, Kildary and then Invergordon. At Invergordon, and whilst myself and Grant were admiring the big boat, Keith and Martin decided to have a race to Alness. Myself and Grant made our peace with that pretty quickly since first one to Alness had to buy the Mr Whippy Ice Creams!!

And true to his word, Martin did! We enjoyed the Ice Cream in the splendour of Alness high street before retracing our route back to Dingwall again. At this stage, the team began to go off in their own directions. Martin headed back to Strathpeffer. I left Keith and Grant at the Maryburgh Roundabout and they headed back through Maryburgh, Conon, Muir of Ord (home for Keith). Grant pushing onwards to home at Kirkhill.

My trip back was a tough one - the climb out of Dingwall was particulary testing. But I stuck to the cycle path through Tore and home at around 4pm!

Overall, my trip was 103 miles, Grant around 90 and Keith mid-80's.

Great training trip for the big one and very hard work. Thanks to Martin for the tips and advice throughout, invaluable experience was gained from him.

Mileage: 103 miles (Inverness)

Average Speed: 14.4 mph

Time: 8 hours

John