On Wednesday May 29th I woke to discover a swarm of midges had established themselves between my tent and the flysheet. I put on my midge net and was fully dressed before venturing outside the tent. It was still raining so I decided to use one of the bothys as a shelter while packing up my camping gear and having a cup of tea.

While I was packing, the rain stopped and the sun tentatively came out. I was happy to not have to ride in the rain. 😎 I pushed my bike back up to the path, took a last look at my camping spot and crossed an old stone bridge to start the ride.

One of the things with cycling through sheep country is that you encounter a number of gates designed to keep the sheep in. These are easy to navigate when there are two if you, but take a bit more time when you’re alone.

The first part of the day was gentle uphill but on rough gravel and with a heavy load it felt worse than it was. I distracted myself with the gorgeous landscape and took a ridiculous number of photographs.

After about 30 minutes on the path, my campsite friend caught up with me and we rode together for a few miles. I discovered that the musical instrument he was playing was a Ukulele. I also discovered that he was from the Shetland Islands. I told him that he was the second person I had met in a few days who played the Ukulele and was from the Shetland Islands. When I described Lynda, the fiddle playing scientist who I met at the train station in Lockerbie and was heading to Nashville, he mentioned her name and told me he knew her and had played fiddle with her. Small world!! Here I was in the middle of nowhere and I meet two people who know each other 😲

I continued along the rocky path into the stunning Alladale Wilderness Reserve.

After a few miles, I caught up with my friend again as he was deviating from my route in order to see a church that he had wanted to visit. At this point I finally asked him his name: Duncan. I took a photo and said goodbye to Duncan before he headed off in search of his church.

After a few miles of reasonably easy cycling on semi paved roads, I arrived at the tiny village of Croick which rang a bell, and then I realized that Croick Church was where Duncan was heading. I assumed he’d taken a short cut and was long gone, but I decided to stop in the churchyard and have lunch.

As I was packing up along came Duncan. His detour was not a shortcut. It had taken him on a walking path and he had got lost.

Duncan and I looked around the churchyard and read the names and messages that were scratched into the glass by crofters who had taken shelter at the lee of the church after they were evicted from Glencalvie in 1845 during The Highland Clearances to make way for sheep farming. It was a sad time in Scotland and led to the destruction of the clan society. Many of the crofters moved to coastal areas or emigrated.

I left Duncan to eat his lunch and continued along the gravel road that soon turned into a muddy path. I didn’t have far to go until I would cross Oykel Bridge and take the paved road into Rosedale but it took ages because of the dreadful condition of the path. As I got closer to civilization, I hit a cell signal and noticed a text from my cousin Jason who was planning to meet me in Rosehall at the end of the day. I stopped to make a quick call to Jason, who told me he had booked a campsite in Lairg and would meet me in the pub at Rosehall for dinner.

There had obviously been a lot of rain in the last few days and parts of the path were submerged.

After what felt like hours, I finally saw the Oykel Bridge and the road that would take me into Rosehall. Riding the A837 concerned me while I was planning this route, but it was my only option. However, you can see it’s no more than a country lane and I saw no more than a handful of cars.

I made good timing into the tiny village of Rosehall. I was happy to get off the bike. It wasn’t a terribly long ride but the path conditions made it feel worse than it was and definitely slowed me down.

I ordered a lager and chatted to some other LEJOG cyclists at the Achness Hotel while I waited for Jason to arrive.

Since there was nothing open in Lairg, we ate dinner at the hotel. Steak and kidney pie with chips for Jason and cheeseburger and chips for me. I was starving! We then headed over to Lairg where Jason had reserved a campsite. We would return to the Achness Hotel in the morning so I could pick up my route.