Set off at 6.40. Loch Ness was like a mirror and reflecting a fantastic sunrise. The morning’s ride was quite flat and made for fairly easy cycling. My breakfast in Inverness was snaffled by a Herring Gull, saw a seal just over the Kessock Bridge and arrived at Cromarty in time for lunch. A short ferry ride to Nigg would give me the chance of seeing Dolphins. I checked the Ferry website a couple of weeks earlier and got my wife to check again a couple of days ago. It runs every half-hour, £5.00 one way. No it doesn’t, when I asked for directions to the Ferry I was told it had not been running since February and no-one knew when it would start again. After a fruitless attempt to find a boat owner who could give me a lift there was no alternative but to start on a 30 mile detour. I hit rain and the endless A9 got hillier and the headwind kicked in. I began to despair of ever reaching Helmsdale. The Hostel was very welcoming and Helmsdale itself had a good selection of restaurants, although no Orange mobile signal or working payphone. I met a quartet who had finished LEJOG yesterday and were from Darlington, close to where I had lived for a number of years, so we chatted well into the evening. Immediately outside the Hostel is a roadsign indicating John O’Groats 55 miles, one day to go! Nine hours and forty seven minutes in the saddle, 123.48 miles and an average speed of 12.6 mph.
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