Day 14: part 2 Tomatin to Brora Approx. 75 miles. 65 miles or so south of John O Groats

Part 2: As i hinted at previously anything north of Edinburgh was new territory for me, a new begining, leaving the past behind. It has been that but the ride in general has also been. Its been a leap to a higher level, it makes it quite tough to know what to do next though... Well the penultimate day went as planned, following the east coast road northward.

Easy roads but a lot of miles for tired legs, and with the temptation to do some sprints on some very rideable stretches. I must say scotland has been spectacular the Lecht pass in particular although i don't think we've gone the most scenic route. Donerobin castle brought a smile.. The thing about this ride is perhaps you can do fifty or sixty miles in a day stamina wise, but endurance is about how many days on the trot you can do that many miles for day after day. Conceivably i think hamish could do the ride in less days, but for matt and I this is about right. As for the average bloke in the street its certainly not as tough as i thought however you do need to be fit enough to do sixty or so miles in a day and be able to get back on your bike the next day. Anyway back to the ride. Last two nights we've played bnb roulette and managed to stumble across two very good places its a gamble but it meant we could be flexible about the distance we rode. We are now sitting outside a rather shabby pub chatting and thinking about todays ride, and tomorrows big finish. We normally set out about 8am. Find lunch about 12 then finish about four although this depends on the ride and the weather. Apparently there is one large hill/dip to come tomorrow.... Hamish's dad is meeting us tomorrow night to help celebrate, you are all welcome too but i would set out now ideally if i were you though! Then he will drive us to Inverness for our flights back to london sunday night. That's all for now the blog will be updated with tomorrows ride, pictures from the last few days, and news on sponsorship, the dvd, book, dvd launch party, etc. probably well into august. One more thing we just got back from our evening out in Brora. Make no mistake this town is in the middle of nowhere so if you ever come here take nothing for granted. In pursuit of a pub that actually had someone in it on a friday night (we only knew of one place) we were directed to a 'hotel' on the main rd. Yes it was the semi derelict building you wouldn't wee against in case it fell over. So we made our way and eventually found the entrance.. Lo and behold it wasn't quite the crack den it looked and was actually quite a good if small bar. Sadly we were just to tired to dance with the local ladies and it was off to bed dreaming of tomorrow. Incidentally Ashley has warned us that JOG is rather tacky.

The River at Brora.