Tain & Inversneckie

I heard the two young cyclists pack up their tent and leave the crask Inn early, I went back to sleep for an hour as I was booked in to have breakfast with the hotel guests, Jackie and connor chatted throughout breakfast it was all interesting stuff, I was mostly packed just the tent really to pack before breakfast, this was a mistake it was dry outside before breakfast but I had to pack the tent wet due to a shower, the Crask has a millennium post outside it which is very scenic they even sell postcards in the inn of it, I should have bought one! I took a photo of the daunder in front of it and set off,

The weather was drizzly to begin with but really brightened up later, the road from the crask inn to the town of lairg was excellent mostly slow downhill gradient I started to then follow rivers it was great to be alongside rivers again there is none on Shetland or Orkney it was a joy for me to see rivers again, I stopped in lairg for some lunch at a nice café where connor and Jackie appeared! So we said our goodbyes twice that day, there’s a strange wee house on the loch in town with a notice board telling the interesting story of it and the family that had lived in it, I stopped at that which is also at the road junction to go towards the town of Rogart, I did briefly consider going that way as I love to stay at the mega cool sleeperzz train carriages there, BUT NCN1 heads down the river shin from here that is what I am following, this is a link to my you tube video of my last visit there

https://youtu.be/2fI0WIO7WPQ

The river shin cycle was excellent there was a shoogly bridge to have a wee daunder over, then a cycle on quiet roads through forestry, which opens out at a visitors’ centre at some waterfalls where the salmon leap, the visitor centre is in the shape of a salmon and there is lots of information about the fish which are these days sadly threatened crazily by the farmed variety of salmon, the centre was shut but I had a walk down to view the falls

Rivers mostly flow down to the sea not always sometimes they flow into lakes or lochs, the river shin flowed swiftly down to Bonnar bridge, the daunder also went swiftly downhill with the river right up until the NCN1 gave me a choice of routes at Carbisdale castle, the story of this castle is amazing I must revisit when it reopens, the route choice was stick with cycling main roads into Bonnar bridge town then continue main roads, OR? haul the fully laden daunder up four flights of steep stairs over the river shin bridge next to the railway bridge? I opted for the hard way mostly to get a closer look at the castle. But also to be on quieter roads on the other side of the river, this turned out to be a good decision, but the shoving the fully laden daunder up those stairs was a sair fecht!

The trees and forests around this road into Ardgay were a pleasure to cycle through, then once at Ardgay it was back to cycling alongside busy roads, I was glad I didn’t have to cycle up Struie hill though! At the bottom of this steep hill is a beautifull old AA phone box which made me smile this was a blast from the past perfectly maintained, when I was a child nearly all motorist were in the AA or the RAC both of whom had telephones near problem areas for breakdown recovery, hills like this one were certainly problem areas in those days for old engines,

The last time I cycled up this way I had cycled over the Dornoch firth bridge, this time I approached it on the south bank and made enquiries at the caravan and camping site? They had no on-site shop or restaurant and also a bit out of town, I opted to cycle on into Tain stopping to buy a bottle of whisky at the glen morangie distillery whilst passing my second visit to the historic distillery, at this stage I was cycling on an extremely busy road where there was a slight edge of the road area for cycling usage, it wasn’t as wide as the good Irish side of the roads style but was better than nothing

I cycled into a beer garden in Tain and got fish and chips with a pint they had rooms at this inn but they were all booked, I asked the helpful barman about options of places to stay he recommended some local B&B`s they were all closed. I went into the large regal looking centre of town royal hotel, they had a room I took the easy option of staying there and having a walk around town, the inclusive hotel breakfast was the usual fair a bit wasted on me loads of dairy and meat! I had cereal with fruit juice in it and some toast and jam,

It was a Saturday there was a market in the town centre gardens, I had to go in as the Cromarty brewery had a stand, I tried a couple of their beers while having a good conversation with the brewery owner (I think he was anyway) then bought three bottles, placing a bottle of happy chappy ale into my bike bottle cage and cycling off, I passed the sign where the route splits, during the summer you can get a passenger ferry from Nigg over the Murray firth. That ferry wouldn’t be starting for another three weeks, it was the longer road round to Dingwall for me

There were some scenic pathways to cycle on and the back roads out to Dingwall were picturesque, the sun was out all was good in the world, in the afternoon I cycled into a busy country hill top farmhouse shop and café, I was going to stop and have something to eat but just a look in the window menu then at the busy staff, I decided there was no point there was nothing for me to eat there anyway Scottish farms are all about meat and dairy not fruit and veg,

I stopped to take a picture of the millennium post at Dingwall train station and admired the war memorial which had an actual sign post from the first wars trenches, it was glorious weather as a I cycled out of dingwall into the black isle, the cycle over the large kessock bridge into inverness made me smile with joy