Breakfast was self catered at the Newtonmore Hostel, so that was simply a bowl of porridge, using sachets brought by Martin - and very good it was too. I brought the blogs up to date and Martin did his usual and "fettled" the bikes, whilst chatting to Neil, who runs the place with Sue. I eventually joined in the conversation and given the common interest in cycling, plus our shared experience of Kendal (Neil 30+ years there, Martin and I 20 years +), plus Neil's comparison of the merits of the two locations, meant that it was around 11.20 by the time we actually set off, only of course after photos. The hostel had really been spot on for our needs and was superb value for money - highly recommended.
Now we wouldn't normally stop after three miles of intensive cycling, but as time was on our side and we had only had the first course of our breakfast some time earlier, we stopped in Kingussie at Pam's Coffee Shop for "brunch". We were served by a lady (we didn't check if she was Pam) and when my ham and cheese toasty was served I asked if Lea & Perrins sauce was available. The answer was sadly no.
I hadn't even started eating when the lady came in through the front door (I hadn't noticed her go out) and put a new Lea & Perrins bottle on the table in front of me, having dashed over to the Co-op opposite to buy some. That's what I call customer service! The gentleman in the photo below mentioned that the lady has also been asked for porridge, which is not on the menu, and done exactly the same thing to oblige the customer.
The food was good, the service was very friendly, plus free wi-fi - 10/10 and definitely worth a photo.
Given that this is supposed to be a blog about our journey north, having spent all the above on the first three miles of the day, I'll try to speed up.
For the rest of the day we were treated to probably the most magnificent scenery we have experienced to date on our trip, aided by superb weather. Below is the view across Loch Insh (note the snow):
And here is the view from a bridge over the River Spey as we were entering a lovely village, the Boat of Garten:
We decided to stop for lunch in the Boat of Garten and found the Post Office and Village Shop, where we couldn't resist the Cornish pasties (what else?). We ate our lunch sitting in the sunshine outside and fell into conversation with a number of people and, yet again as we have found in Scotland, cash donations were made, one by a local lady shopper and the other by guess which member of the visiting Edinburgh family (whose home it transpired we cycled past on Friday) in the photo below:
It was of course Robbie the dog, albeit unwittingly, as we were told the donation was actually Robbie's pocket money - perhaps that's why he doesn't appear to be smiling in the photo! On a more serious note, many thanks for the donations from the kind people we met - as always they are very much appreciated.
Moving on from Boat of Garten we had a similar, but less demanding ascent to yesterday's, this time to Slochd summit, before the long descent towards Inverness. Again I'll give Martin the summit photo credit as he (as usual) reached the destination first:
The remainder if the ride into Inverness was speedy and enjoyable, and as we arrived in the city we had one unscheduled stop at Velocity, cafe and bicycle workshop, which caught Martin's eye and which the lady in the photo told us was a social enterprise and had been open about 18 months. Whilst they had closed for the day she showed us the bike workshop, which was right up Martin's street. I think at least one of us will be calling into Velocity when next in the area!
After an excellent meal we ambled back to Glendoune, but not until we'd taken some photos of the views from one of the several bridges over the River Ness - it really is very attractive:
It was a satisfying end to a really enjoyable day. We had done an easy 56 miles, with good weather and superb scenery and we had brought our total mileage up to 1008. Two days to go and signs of favourable winds!
