" Letting the days go by: letting the water hold me up"

And there's been plenty of water during our few days in Scotland! When Linda ( our accordion playing Scottish correspondent) assured us that the weather was looking a lot more settled for the start of our epic, we presumed she meant " settled" in a warm and pleasant fashion. Instead it was settled in a cold, wet, windy and even snowy fashion. However, before you become too concerned at our northern plight I can report that Joanne and I partook of a couple of alcoholic beverages last night (I know this will be hard to believe to most of you) and it cost £4:96 for two pints of Stella 4 so there is a silver/gold lining to even the blackest cloud. Unfortunately we had a 4:45 alarm set for this morning so could not really take appropriate advantage of our good fortune. Apologies for the lack of blogging.....not caused by extreme fatigue but rather technological malaise. Back at John and Marjorie's for this evening so a chance to bring things up to date. The "epic" started early......it was so cold and windy when we assembled in John O'Groats that we had a quick vote and decided to crack on; a decision that was vindicated over the following hours as the "sliding roon" came in handy in the face of a solid 25 mph headwind with considerably speedier gusts! It barely got dark. The cycling was as tough as you'd imagine under the circumstances but the privilege of rolling through the penumbra in emptiness was more than adequate compensation. The highlight: probably the two hundred yards or so when a Barn Owl accompanied me, flying a metre or so off my left shoulder. Huge thanks to Joanne and Roger for their support during the night and for singing Happy Birthday at midnight. My cycling time for the 167 miles was nine and a half hours but with plenty of stops to keep morale high and food intake up we took nearly 11 hours to reach the ski station on Cairngorm. In the dark, without a computer it's almost impossible to keep track of pace: energy is wasted climbing......because you can't see the gradient. All challenging but all fun......once I'd finished. Longest ever ride: 4 hrs and 60 miles further than ever before.....even when I was fit! Did I mention the headwind? The headwind was not about to let up any time soon. John headed off up Cairngorm to tackle the Cairngorm 4's into the teeth of a gale which was blowing at well over 50 mph on the tops. Add a little drizzle and you can imagine the scale of the challenge. It was cold enough for him to don his hat......a rare Chadwick occurrence. The route is long and remote so we wouldn't see him again until his descent into Glen Feshie. While we waited for him we were entertained by the Golden Eagles soaring overhead.....a stunning location. John duly returned, some 8 hrs or so later, which was maybe ( like my cycle) an hour longer than he would have hoped for but not unexpected in the conditions. Time for a pizza, bed and preparation for day two! Only nine to go......can that be right? Stay tuned for day twoness.......it gets colder and wetter !