Spring Highland Tour day 4 - the bride

Looking out the bedroom window of the lodge first thing in the morning, and the deer are at the back door. There's a herd of about twenty wandering around, and we clocked them last night in the field between the lodge & hotel, and earlier over the road by the church. Think of sheep wandering about on the moors, but these are wilder and much ,much bigger.

Big loop further north and back to Inchnadamph is whats happening today. First stop is only just up the road about 10 miles and it's the Kylesku Bridge. Interesting memorial to the men of the 12th Submarine Flotilla who trained in this area for the X craft attack on the Tirpitz. Bit of a bonus that memorial as I didn't know it was there (viewpoint car park on the north side of the bridge) and I had just finished reading a book about the X craft attacks a few weeks ago and recognised some of the names on it.

Then something you don't see everyday- a bride & groom appeared - it was 10 o'clock on a Sunday morning. Next thing a photographer appears and they start taking pictures. Curiosity aroused we ask if they just got married, but as it happens the wedding was 6 months ago and they were taking wedding snaps in unusual locations all the way up the coast. Steve reckons something else was going on along the lines of a publication for men in trench coats with an unhealthy wedding fetish. They eventually saw the bikes and convinced Steve to let them use his for some of the pics. Bride hops on and we're all waiting for her to burn her legs or melt her dress on the hot exhaust or something, but nothing happened. Anyhow they took their pics and off they went.

Interesting and bleaker scenery as we head to Durness, which has the only petrol station for 25 miles and it's shut as it's a Sunday. Not a problem for me as I've got 2/3 of a tank left - 200 miles - and the other two are not too badly off as we will be passing through Lairg later in the day - 70 miles away - and that will have a petrol station open. However, it's a problem for a group of other bikes heading for Ullapool, some of whom are really low. A couple of them go to a nearby cafe and manage to find the owner and get him to open the pump specially for them, which he does grudgingly and then if they pay cash only and all fill up on one operation of the pump. Anyway, we take advantage to top up as well since all the hard work was done already and give our tenners to the 'gang leader'. Funnily enough a car joins the end of the queue but gets his marching orders from the garage owner!! Good of him to help the guys out but he could have done it with a smile. Onwards and halfway around Loch Eribol Nige suddenly takes a left and we're stoppin for a tea break at a place in some guys garden that looks like a converted garage. Nice enough ex steelworker from Ponty running it and he seems pleased for the excuse to have a conversation, but he's a bit slow with the beans on toast which takes nearly half an hour to make. Never mind, we spend the time chatting to a lady who's cycling all around scotland on her own & camping wild where she can.

We eventually get our order, eat up and head for Tongue and then turn south for Lairg and then NWish along Loch Shinn and back to Inchnadamph. I was bored stiff on the road from Tongue to Lairg (A836) but the other two seemed to like it! Stopped at the ruins of Ardveck Castle near the hostel and spent a good hour looking around - stunning evening again, and great views across the loch.