Today was meant to be an easier day as it was only 80 miles to Lairg.  I avoided Inverness and cut 20 miles off my original route, the price though was some seriously steep climb.  This was the steepest climb so far by some way.  I didn't really enjoy it at all.  The cleat on my left shoe has almost worn through, I hope it can hold out until tomorrow night.  After 40 miles I stopped in Conon Bridge for lunch, half of the day’s journey in the bag.  I had some Lasagne from last night and a chip buttie.

Leg 2 was 30 miles with less climbing.  As you get tired though the hills become mountains and you find that you are searching for a lower gear, but there isn't one!  I plodded on at no great pace until I hit the A9 which was busy but fast.  It's amazing what a difference the surface of the road makes and I was averaging over 15 mph for about 12 miles until I turned off and returned to some rutted roads once more.  This road was an A road and took me up and up for what seemed like an endless climb until I was cycling through moorland.  It was bleak, but the rain never arrived and the sun came out for a while.  It was quite breezy which cooled me down.  The descent was awesome and I got up to 35 mph for a mile or so which really helped the average speed.  I finally arrived at Bonar Bridge feeling fairly exhausted but happy knowing that I only had 11miles to go for today.

I didn't anticipate writing anything about the last 11 miles but it was so tough that I thought I would mention it.  I still climbed something like 600 feet and it was into a headwind for the first 3 miles.  The views were spectacular, but boy it was hard going.  I'm still having to visualise success to keep going, but there is only one day to go now!!!!  The Sat Nav is still working perfectly and the roads are better than they were in Lanarkshire.

The messages of support via the blog comments, email and text have been a massive help, thank you.