Dingwall

30/5/15

The LEJOGers were in a bit of a panic at how late they were starting- they were eating breakfast at the same time as us. The man driving the back-up vehicle looked on as the four cyclists devoured food, he professed to have given up breakfast since 1990! We quizzed them on their route (of which there are only really 2 options) but none other than the leader seemed to know. His Googlemap image on a phone also had little other than a blue line and major towns so our recommendations of places to stop such as the Crask Inn were challenging. The piled out with strollies instead of panniers (to go on support van) and we watched them set off north for their last 2 days. They were a nice bunch, we had chatted to a man from the Mendips in the bar last night where he recounted tales of their journey. The worst was the night their support vehicle had been stolen from outside their hotel in Bolton. After reports on local radio, someone had soon offered them the loan of a replacement, the fast media response also resulted in the thieves abandoning their mission so the police recovered the van.

We continued breakfast until the sun shone and set off- 15 minutes later waterproofs were on!

The main climb to great views across to the Dornoch Firth, we met a Dutch couple who cowered in the rain until the rain stopped at a view point, they come to Scotland because they don't like hot countries!

Our long decent to the Cromarty Firth brought us to the pleasant suprise of a new Sustrans cycle lane through woods and avoiding, the now much busier, B roads. The only snag is that it crosses asaid road so many times and with a slalom collection of slalom gates that we wondered how many people use it. Then we saw a group of LEJOGers on the main road.

We arrived in Evanton and were at first sad to see the Cornerstone cafe closed (it was Saturday) then to our delight it was opened for a special afternoon tea and bring-and-buy sale for a community fund. The money raised going towards projects such as community woodland and a campaign to re-open the train station among the worthy causes.

We sat excitedly with our tiered treat before us and the room soon filled with chattering, friendly locals.

We made our donation and left just as a group of about 10 young Chinese came in, I am sure they would enjoy the experience too.

The last 10km passed woodland and fields of Rape, we we were out of the wild north and into the fertile lowlands.

Heading up the lane to Tulloch Castle hotel, I noticed a strange white face in a high window, little did I know this was to be explained as a ghostly apparition told to us by the charismatic hotel manager that evening on the Ghost Tour!

The bikes were stored in the haunted Dungeon and we were shown to our grand room complete with castellated wardrobe!

The girl on the left fell to her death after fleeing from the scene of her father in bed with a woman other than her mother. Her father was painted out of the top left of this picture after the scandal. It was the girl's face that I saw at a high window on our approach to the castle!