On Tuesday May 28th, I checked out of the Backpackers hostel around 9am and cycled out of Inverness through an industrial area that led me to Kessock Bridge to cross the Moray Firth from Inverness to Kessock. The bridge has a pedestrian and bicycle lane.

I was quite excited to be heading into the north highlands and getting into some off road cycling.

I had charged my InReach the night before because I knew I would be remote and without cell phone coverage for the next couple of days, but for some reason I decided to check it again after crossing the bridge and discovered it was completely dead. I must have put it away without turning it off 😠 so I decided to stop at the first place I could to recharge the battery.

After crossing the bridge and leaving Inverness, I followed a small road that paralleled the Moray Firth, heading towards the town of Muir of Ord. I knew this could be the last town for a food/coffee break.

I stopped at the Muir Hub and Cafe. I bought a rather expensive cappuccino and sandwich and asked the server if I could charge my phone. She said “yes”, so I sat in a comfortable chair near the door where there was a plug and charged my phone and InReach. After about 20 minutes, a women came through the door, yelled at me, and told me I couldn’t use the plug. I told her that I had asked permission. She could clearly see that I was drinking a coffee and eating lunch so I was a customer. She then said, “ I am the owner and I said no.” She was very rude and told me to unplug the phone and the InReach. Luckily the InReach had already charged 40% so I had enough power in case I needed it in an emergency. I finished my lunch in a hurry, and then carried the dishes back inside. She took them from me and I offered to pay for the electricity that I had used, but she said no and that she was tired of people coming in and abusing her electricity which was now very expensive. It was a very unpleasant encounter, so if you’re ever in Muir of Ord, I do not recommend visiting the Muir Hub and Cafe, unless you want to have a very expensive coffee or lunch, and then feel abused by the end of the visit.

The cafe is on the ground floor of a community center that was independent of the café. Hence its name, Hub. A cool thing they had outside was a free pantry for people who needed help affording groceries which are expensive in Scotland. I talked to a lady who frequently visited the pantry to pick up supplies. She was an elderly single lady and really appreciated the generosity of the local supermarket and people in the community who donated the food. I told her about my encounter with the owner of the café and she told me that she didn’t think she was a very nice person and was not surprised!

Feeling a little down after my interaction with the nasty owner of the café I headed on along the relatively quiet A832 and joined the A835 just before the tiny town of Contin. I followed this busy road until I reached Garve and then turned onto a lane that was a historic and important old drove road and military road following a small river named Blackwater. At Little Garve I crossed over Blackwater on the historic Little Garve Bridge. Here was a camping spot where drovers and their animals once rested for the night. I paused for a while and imagined the cattle drinking from the river and the chatter of the drovers as they sat aound campfires drinking ‘a wee dram’ 🥃

I followed the drove road until just before Silverbridge and turned onto a forestry road.

My route was mostly on forestry paths as I headed toward Loch Vaich where I had planned to camp because I could see some flat land at a spot with two structures labelled Lubachlaggan. These turned out to be two derelict bothies that were at one time part of a larger community on the loch. They are now sheep shelters.

The private road toward Loch Vaich was deserted and lovely. I saw a couple of other cyclists and lots of sheep. it was a slow and steady climb up to the loch. The skies were grey and there was a constant soaking drizzle, but I still thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon.

Although I didn’t have any particularly steep climbs, the ride was overall up and I ended up cycling 41 miles and climbing 2,060 feet.

When I arrived at the bothies I spent some time finding a flattish spot that was relatively free of sheep poop. I ended up camping close to a bothy that gave me some protection from the wind and I could store my bike inside to keep it dry.

There was one other camper a little bit closer to the loch so I went over to say hello and had a very nice chat with a Scottish guy out for a few days on his own. His sister was supposed to be with him but she was sick so he offered me her portion of a lentil mixture he’d made for dinner. Very kind, but I declined as I had carried plenty of food.

I pitched my tent, ate some dinner, and cleaned up using some adventure wipes I’d brought along for the wild camping before getting into my bed. I used the InReach to send a message to Jacques to tell him I had safely reached my intended destination. We exchanged a few texts and I remembered to turn off the InReach before putting it away!! As I lay in my sleeping bag, I could hear music in the distance. I wondered if my neighbor had brought along a harmonica. I drifted off to sleep to the sound of the music.

Since the sheep used the bothies as shelters and there was heavy rain during the night, I woke to hear heavy breathing outside my tent that turned out to be a curious sheep! 🐏 It gave me a momentary fright but I soon fell asleep again.