Lejog day 12 - 07/14/2018

Today we had planned to ride from Ballater to Inverness across the Cairngorms. Storm Hector had arrived overnight so Julie did an early drive along the course and returned with bad news at our morning briefing.

Today's route contained some of the steepest climbs of the tour and was exposed to 60+ mph cross winds for the first half. We were urged to allow Peak Tours to arrange for transportation to Inverness. Five or six of the more testosterone impregnated riders (none of them female) decided to ride anyway. I was not one of them.

As we were passing the riders I noticed the minibus driver had his steering wheel almost a quarter turn to the left to stay in a straight line at some points. The wind was pushing the riders into oncoming traffic. There were occasional heavy showers and at the higher elevations the temperature was down to 2C which, apparently, felt like -10C with the wind. Those descents must have been sphincter clenching.

Their decision was selfish in some ways because it meant that a Peak Tours guide had to ride with them. Dave drew the short straw and I could tell he was not happy about it. Honestly, I think it would have made a lot more sense to have him drive one of the vans in close support. If one of the riders had got into difficulty,  Dave would have been able to SAG him out.

Even though we were disappointed to be unable to ride the entire distance, it was obvious we had made the right decision. It was such a horrible day I didn't even take any photographs. We were relieved to hear that all the riders and Dave made it through in one piece.

We took the opportunity in Inverness to get some shopping and laundry done. Inverness is a big city on the mouth of the River Ness (same as Loch Ness). It has a Marks and Spencers which we visited twice and a modern brick castle which we visited once. It's a very pleasant city to spend an unexpected day in.

I normally rode with my meds in the bike pannier and made the mistake of leaving them there while we were driven to Inverness. I didn't realize I would not get my bike back until the following morning so I couldn't get to them for the entire day. That was a bad mistake.

We had the best porridge ever at the B&B there.