Day 2!

I made it about 200 meters out of their drive when I realized I had forgotten my nuggets! On my second attempt I made it about a mile before it started pouring on me, rain thankfully. It snowed last night up in the mountains, but only a dusting and none down in the valley where I was. It was a bright sunny morning, even during the rain. I should mention that weather in Scotland is not like anything I've ever encountered: read on. You can look up and see blue sky but have rain falling on you. Thats normal.

I cycled through my future home, Aviemore, a little village in between two snow capped peaks. The lodge owner had showed me a different route to take, to make better time than along the national route since today was a 70 mile day and I wanted some time to see sights as well. The road paralled the A9 4 lane highway, but there was very very few cars and it was in great shape. I stopped in all the little villages along the way, which broke up the ride and it didn't seem like 70 miles at all.

I stopped first at the Highland Museum in Newtonmore, a replica of a Scotish village from the earlier 1900's with a lot of original buildings and workshops and such. My favorite part there was that they had a display kitchen with rations from WWII showing what each family got per week. Safe to say I'd die after a week and a half, or eat mom and dad's since I'm stronger than they are...

My next stop was the super market where I got some oranges and granola bars for The Pass of Drumochter, a 30 km stretch with a sign that says something about taking extreme caution, as the weather, especially in May and Oct can take a turn for the worse at any minute. I didn't really read the sign, just got my picture taken by it.

Looking back, I do remember the man commenting that the sun was so bright he needed a different angle... I thought of that about 2 miles later at the summit when out of no where it started to rain. I rode in that for a little while, everything I had is waterproof so no big deal. Then it started to hail, so I pulled off next to a fence and hunkered under my rain shell and waited it out. Only lasted about 10 minutes, but that was long enough for me. As soon as it quit I was outta there. On the other side the sun was as bright as could be, a beautiful ride with moss covered rock walls on my left (surrounding beautiful estates), and a rushing creek on my right.

I'd been meeting bikers all day, probably about 20, some pairs and some solos like me, but mostly going up (with the wind) to Inverness. I knew from them that once I passed the summit it was down hill for ME and a wind at MY back for once. It was everything I dreamed of and more haha I cruised down the mountain to Blair Atholl barely pedaling, for about 10 or 15 miles. I got there at 5, half an hour after the castle closed, so I have to back track a little tomorrow to see that.

I got to Pitlochtry about 6 then, wandered around the town, then went to the supermarket to get dinner. I made a huge batch of Carbonata, thanks to Luca for teaching me that in Spain, enough for tomorrow too, and some eggs to fry up for breakfast, and I sauteed up some brocoli, tomatoes, parsley and mushrooms to go with.

Well, I'm heading to bed, its later than I though! another long day tomorrow with the back track, but I'm loving it! Have a hostel booked in Dundee, praying for some good weather and more good cycling.