Day 22 - Kinguisse to Inverness


Day 22 - Kinguisse to Inverness

This should be a simple day today! After breakfast in our room we take our gear down to the bikes which were stored in the hotel ballroom. My back tyre which we fixed last night is still inflated. Yeh!

We take back roads to Aviemore and arrive at about 11:00 am.
A pretty Scottish river
It is a lively tidy town in a pretty mountain location.  
Aviemore from a distance - I think!

We go to Mikes Bikes where a  friendly young man helps us reset the back tyre so it's sits better in the rim.  He also sells me a cheap pump as a replacement for the broken one which we find is actually high quality. After much cursing of it last night. I regret my moaning about it now. But it was old I think.

We head on to Cassbridge where we  have lunch - baked potato – my standard with tuna filling. There is a great old bridge here with an excellent story around it.
 In the medieval times  the church was on one side of the river and the village on the other.  And when people died and there was bad weather and the river was in flood then people couldn't be buried  until the river went down.  So the bridge was built to solve this situation. It is the oldest stone bridge in the highlands.
Selfie using road side mirror

On we  go another 8 km to the top of Slochd. (Pronounce that!) at 400 metres.. Now it is a long downhill heading for Inverness. I am damp from sweating on the uphill.  My warm jacket is not windproof. There is a head wind. To my surprise I get chilled very quickly. And start to feel unwell. I'm worried I'll get sick at this late stage in the trip. And it should be mainly downhill now to Inverness but there's actually still plenty of ups.  

We spend a little time visiting the Clava Cairns , a 4000 year old burial site with standing stones and  large stone cairns.




We continue to  Inverness where we arrive at dusk. I feel unwell.  Our BandB has a good room and we are near the centre of town.  
Our BandB with Tartan carpet
We have McDonald's for dinner. In the MacDonalds there is an older woman who looks deeply world weary and exhausted. She has 6 young children in her charge around 7 or 8 years old. They seem wild and lost although well dressed. They have some sort of birthday packs each which they rip open.  They distribute the contents everywhere in the general vicinity. They then get their birthday pack MacDonalds meals which they wolf down with seemingly little attention or appreciation.. Although the woman looks poor, this must be an expensive experience. Is she the mother. Gran. Or a carer. The woman occasionally attempts to exhibit some modicum of control but with no impact on the children who are quite self absorbed.  The scene seems full of melancholy and future pain. But who am I to predict such.

I'll be wearing a bit more warm clothing  tomorrow.  I hope I wake up feeling OK.  3 1/2 days to go. Tomorrow is a big enough day at 86 kms.

We don’t get to see much of this city tonight. It is the most northern city in the UK. It looks tidy and well cared for. 

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