Day 10 - Birnam to Aviemore

Sept 24, 19:12: Ok, so this is a day late - sorry! I was having major connection issues last night (that happens when there's virtually no signal), hence no post. So I'll do it now instead.

It shouldn't be difficult, as yesterday was a memorable day - and not necessarily for the right reasons. It was one of those days which was by far more of a test of mental stamina than physical. The day started much like all the others - quite well - with a lovely full Scottish breakfast at the Birnam B&B we'd stayed at, which, by the way, I highly recommend. Adrian Davis, the owner, is not only a fascinating chap to talk/listen to, but also runs wildlife & outdoor pursuit-type holidays etc, which you can read about or book at http://www.wildoutdoors.info/ - I'd suggest you take a look, as I'm seriously considering booking a week's holiday myself. Birnam's located in frankly astonishing surroundings, and the idea of a week's kayaking/orienteering/hiking etc suddenly appeals greatly.

Anyway, enough shameless plugging. To cut a long (ish) story short (ish), we very quickly fell massively behind schedule and by 13:00 we'd only managed to cover 12 miles, and even that had only put us 8 miles from our start point because we picked the scenic route instead of the A9. The detour was part of the reason for the lateness, the other bit was Carl's rear tyre, which was quite badly blistered but which he'd gone off on that morning anyway. Once we'd reached Pitlochry after 8/12 miles, it had become dangerously unrideable, so we called the support back from where they'd stopped in Blair Atholl to change the tyre. Unfortunately I get quite impatient and frustrated when I'm in a cycling frame of mind, so none of this put me in a very good mood. Still, the tyre got changed, we set off again, and after a few minutes the party ground to another halt.

I'm ashamed to say that at this point I had a hissy fit. I may even have thrown my helmet to the ground and stomped off, swearing. Then I stomped back, retrieved my lid and only then remembered that I'd been wearing a bluetooth headset, and had no idea where it'd been flung when I'd ripped the helmet off. Trying to find a bluetooth headset in long grass without looking more of a tit then you've already made yourself look is not easy, but I think I did okay. Sadly I was still in a bad mood though when we set off again, still with around 60 miles to do.

Luckily, Andy's quite good at playing diplomat, and although I initially resisted his attempts to pacify me, none of us could help but laugh when we passed a gantry with the message 'Frustration Causes Accidents' on it - it was as if God himself was telling me to stop being such a berk.

We pressed on. The weather turned foul. There's not much between Pitlochry & Aviemore in terms of civilisation, as it's straight through the middle of the Cairngorms. They are, of course, stunningly beautiful, but it's hard to really appreciate that when you have horizontal rain and you're soaked to the skin whilst slowly grinding uphill into the wind.

Strangely, there was a point when we were all passed by a lorry travelling the other way which somehow managed to dump a good cloudful of water over us, and which for some inexplicable reason we all found terribly amusing. It must have looked very strange to other road users to see five extremely bedraggled cyclists giggling inanely on the A9.

Eventually we stopped for a bite at Dalwhinney, and mercifully the weather brightened. That wasn't to be the end of the misery though, at least not for me. When we reached Aviemore, our accommodation turned out to be another youth hostel - the only positive I can say about it is at least it didn't promise more than it delivered by actually being quite nice on the outside or anything. Six to a room, 3 bunk beds which I'm fairly sure had been bought on the cheap from a local nuthouse which had upgraded theirs, communal showers which were of the ever-popular 'fixed head/fixed fecking temperature' design (should only take a few months to regrow the skin on my back), and a hall light which shone through a glass panel at the top of the door and inexplicably refused to remain switched off. I bloody hated it. Oh, and there were Germans there too, but at least they hadn't reserved the kitchen this time

Stats:
Distance: 70.91 miles
Ride time: 5h 5m 42s
Ave moving speed: 13.94 mph
Elevation gain: 5,397 ft

Keith