Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The whisky had clouded our minds and we had forgotten about food. It was nearly 5pm
and we hadn't eaten anything since our porridge at the Caledonian.
The young cashier of the shop - a pretty Scottish-born Asian girl - gave us a bunch of
bananas, which would have seen us through the rest of the day if it had come to it. In that
remote part of Scotland, we didn't know when we would eat again.
It was too early for us to stop for the day in Golspie, as we would have been left with
over 70 miles to complete on the final day. Just beyond the village we passed the spectac-
ular looking Dunrobin Castle. I say 'spectacular' because I have just seen pictures of it on
theinternet.Idon'trememberbeingabletoseemuchofitfromtheroad,though.Ourroute
book said that it is
'well worth a stop'
, but I didn't read this until we were several miles
beyond.
The wind had died down and the rain clouds were out of sight, which left us with some
pleasant cycling for the rest of the day. Fuelled by the bananas we made good progress,
cycling another 20 miles through the town of Brora and on to the village of Helmsdale.
It was 6.30pm by the time we reached Helmsdale, and we had to decide whether to call
it a day or push onto the next village of Berriedale, another ten miles further on.
'I think we should try and get to Berriedale today. It'll be 10 miles that we don't have to
do tomorrow,' I said.
'I knew you were going to say that,' said Ben. 'But what happens if we can't find any-
where in Berry Vale?'
'Berriedale.'
'Whatever.Whathappensifwecan'tfindanywherethere?Shouldn'twelookforsome-
where here first? This place looks fairly big. There are B&Bs, a pub. I think we could find
somewhere easily.'
'We probably would, but I'm sure we'll find somewhere in Berriedale, too. It looks as
big as this place on the map.'
'Ten miles, you say?'
'Yeah. The other thing is there is a massive hill for the next 4 ½ miles, which would
mean that if we stayed here we would have to do that first thing tomorrow.'
'But if we do it now, it means that we have to do it NOW! Either way it's crap.'
'But if we get it over and done with now, then we'll have just 43 miles left tomorrow,
and it will all be fairly flat and easy.'
'Fine! If it shuts you up, let's get it over and done with. But if we end up homeless to-
night then I'm going to fucking kill you.'
The hill was every bit as gruelling as our route book suggested, and Ben moaned every
bit as much as I thought he would. We left the coast behind as we crawled slowly up into
the hills. By 'crawled' I mean that we cycled slowly. Things had not got that bad.
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