LeJOG Day 7 Fort William To Bonar Bridge

 Day 7: Fort William to Bonar Bridge. With a 7pm time curfew for check-in and dinner at our destination we needed an early start. Pastries bought last night were scoffed and we headed out at 6-45am. A beautiful canal path took us out of town below the mist covered Ben Nevis to Spean Bridge, home of the commandos.

On from there to Loch Ness. Since long before this trip Ben has talked about his wild swimming ambitions, particularly in Loch Ness. You can only imagine his disappointment after 800 miles cycling to discover he'd forgotten to pack his armbands. His dream would have to wait. Crestfallen is an understatement. To cheer himself up he went all ginger-beer.

We rode the length of Loch Ness on the west side (about 30 miles) and didn't see Nessie once. Not surprising the beast is never spotted- we only actually saw the Loch about 3 times, Tourism Scotland really need to trim those hedges and trees back. What a disappointment.

Into Inverness and we found a massive fecking bridge. I'm not overkeen on high bridges on a bike and this was no exception. Caged against the edge with traffic flying by a couple of feet away it was a bit grim. And it was all uphill.

After that we had to suffer some short sections of the A9 before our stop. We made it by 6-30pm and the venison meatballs were well worth the effort.

Tomorrow the final push to top out.