This copy of a map gives you idea of where we are travelling in the last two days. Drumnadrochit is sort half way between fort William and Invergordon.
Unlike in England, here is much tougher and steeper land to work thru and much less population in Scotland and less roads to choose from.
We are working thru this natural split between landmasses, which I am told come from different parts of different continental shelves millions of years ago. We are now where the blue dot is in Invergorden. Having come up from Fort William. two days ago where I left Lee -Anne . She is actually now in Dingwall where we passed thru' yesterday. Actually almost with in metres of where we passed thru Dingwall.
You can see how narrow it is from the map beside the loch and Calderon canal that follows the split in the land. Very steep on either side. To avoid fast traffic on the roads we have been trying to use the forestry roads and that has been testing as they are generally steep and have a challenging surface. That's code for bumpy and often very rocky.
Nick who lives in Scotland wanted to have bit more time in the tough forests and in his "home" patch and she off this to others which we all like to do around our homes. I much preferred staying off busy roads with huge buses and lorries wizzing bye, so easily agreed joined him, and was good from a safety perspective hat we had two at least together.
This near where he lives and in fact we stopped off the route latter to have afternoon tea with his wife son and his family in Dingwall. More on that latter.
Well it was steep and was rocky to start the day as we tour traveled to gather apart from the others who stayed on the main road and we caught up with them in Inverness.
In short it was sososo beautiful and I was in my element yet again.
Some parts were really technical and testing from a riding perspective, right up with some on the TA trail, but were a lot of fun and tested these electric bikes.
The views from up high in the forests were just awesome as was the landscape and colours and light.
It seems, hand on head that we may have missed the famous Scottish Mossies. Yah. Oh I hope so. One of the team was over the world about this as she was so anxious of them. The weather has had windy enough and we seemed to got to the highlands with out encountering the mosses
So off Nick and I went, the two of us ,whilst the others were on the narrow busy main road down in the bottom of the valley whilst we headed to the hills and without busy roads. I n beautiful surroundings and at the end great views across the valleys and lochs to die for.
One of the first views from the forest by Nick and I and locking down on Lochness in the background.
Doing some maintanence on the trail
Looks lovely and just was, what you can see is the rocks that come from time to time and some tough b=its that are so challenging, 40 % in couple of places which is basically unrideable , unless you avoid wheel stands, rocky, wet and technically sooso much fun and perhaps a little dangerous.
The girls would not have enjoyed this and understandable.
Had my first fall of the tour and luckily no major damage.
We were on a very slow speed as on an uphill but rocks are unforgiving on the joints, knees and bum and head !
had to walk at times and although not rocky here, sometimes is too steep to get back on bike again until flattens out a bit
We broke out in to major Forestry roads , we were about 10 km behind the others but we were having a ball.
The heather and views , lovely
Fast riding a good surface still to get down to main road and still high in the hills
Views out to our left from that high road
The views down on the lochs as we start the descent
Have to run again and finish latter. 7.15 am on third to last day and need to get breakfast and get away. Where does the time go. !
Postscript adding text Monday morning day 22 to finish this page of the blog
a few of the photos below are from others as the team we spilt on the first part of the journey and we meet up together again in Inverness. This is where we crossed the caledonian Canal. Sun is shining and it looks a picture
A always smiling selfie of Andy with Crawford in behind.
That's a determined face Nick !
I took this one with my buddy Nick.
Inverness castle and is restoration mode
Loads of churches in Inverness. Quite pretty in the inner city
View from a bridge high up as we leave the city
Under another highway. Sadly as we went along the road on a cycleway latter that day we heard loads of sirens from police cars, ambulances and fire engines, and noticed the traffic starting to converge and a lot turn around and come back.
there had been a big accident and we we thought we may have to redirect. Andy went ahead to the scene and we were able to go along the cycleway and get pass but saw a car on its rood smashed up. The fire chief said no one was killed as otherwise there was no way we would have got thru and the cycle path was clear. Always sobering !1!!!!
Lee -Anne said her journey to Dingwall was subject to diversions as roads were closed and the disruption is felt as not that many roads and alternative routes in the highlands. We heard of 40 km diversions so I said yesterday, I would have gone through paddocks to avoid a 40 Km diversion
Note making lite-is really sad to see high speed accident results. Not sure what happened and suspect it may have been a car overtaking and clipped another vehicle? Don't really know
On the road as we approach Dingwall. I didn't know about the "clearings "but learnt about this event that occurred in Scotland as the landowners (mostly wealthy English) told there people that they had to leave and large numbers of Scottish highlanders had to move away.
I wonder if my grandmother family were one of those as they left Dingwall?
I believe they left in the1870's for NZ and Invercargill where gran was born, Before moving to the volcanic plateau after the Tarawera Eruption. I only knew Gran when she lived in Auckland.
I don't know that part of our histroy.
All this about the "clearings" is similar to what happened in Ireland.
The population of the highlands area of Scotland is lower than what it was in the 1870's and from our visit to Ireland in 2019, I know the numbers who left (or died) their and its huge in Ireland. As a whole. Ireland went from 9 million people to under 3 million and had recovered to around 5 million today.
This scale of migration and movement is hard to imagine. Thank goodness for the opportunities that the new world of US, Canada , NZ and Australia created for thes people of Uk.
We are seeing migration again today with masses arriving in Britian daily from Africa from war and famine and a belief of a better life elsewhere. Of course the fleeing that we saw from Ukraine and other parts of Europe in recent years is going on as well. With the birth rates falling and aging population in European and in the western world, it a great opportunity for both sets of peoples. Migrates often do well, and we see lots of instances of that in NZ. No universal and cultural shocks are significant. All makes you think of what will happen in the future with climate change etc and the past repeating itself.
'
This from Tescos car park in Dingwall and is a monument to Hector Macdonald from his military achievements.
Postscript- text added Monday 24 June -day 22
This is us getting our photo taken as we are about to leave Nicks steps sons house ( we were across the road).
Paul kindly hosted us and it was nice to catch up with Nicks wife, her son Paul and her daughter in law and their young 4 year old daughter for afternoon tea. They were wonderful hosts and thanks Nick for arranging.
We were treated to cakes and lovely hospitality and yes I indulged !
The young daughter who was eagerly awaiting us so she could eat her cake 🍰. She played in her swing with delight.
This is in Dingwall where Lee -Anne is currently staying and arrived after we left on Friday. It's remarkable how many times we have been close and our paths have crossed in the same day. I will meet Lee -Anne on Wednesday morning 26 th when I come down from John O Groats. arranged my taxi to Wick and train tickets to Dingwall last night, before falling asleep again talking to Lee -Anne.
I am typing this on Monday morning as have a sleep in this morning so can catch up .
We have short day today as to start latter. break I think will be around 8 am.
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