Day 1! So, did I mention that the bike hire didn't include a helmet? Probably not... haha but no worries, on the train to Inverness I met the manager of a bike shop, and he wrote me a note to give to his employees, and they let me borrow a helmet to return in Edinburgh at their other shop.

So I left Inverness at about 3:30, had about a 25 mile ride to Slochd Mhor Lodge, in 'the Schold,' where I was going to spend the night. On the way I stopped at Culloden Battlefield, the site of the last battle fought on British soil, between the Jacobites and the British Army. I also stopped at Cave Cairns, an ancient burial ground with stone circles and standing stones- like Stonehenge only not as big. They were in a small grove of trees in the middle of nowhere, or at least what I thought was the middle of nowhere until I got to the Slochd!

I pedaled on, uphill, into a strong headwind from the SW that just wouldn't give up. The weather was great other than that, partly cloudy but never a drop of rain. The ascent wasn't too bad, but the pack made it much more difficult.

I made it to the village of Tomatin around dinner time, followed the signs that read FOOD SERVED ALL DAY until I came to a little tavern in a tiny tiny town. I wandered in to a seat and had some hot macaroni and veggies, and got a platter of chicken nuggets for the morning. I left, with the encouragement of the bar patrons and a full stomach, to the Slochd. I knocked on the wrong house at first... I looked like it could have been a lodge! but a little further down was the actual lodge. It was a beautiful ski lodge, in the middle of no where, very quiet and very clean.

I showered up and headed down to the kitchen for a spot o' tea where I met a great family from Holland. They were on holiday, spent some time on the Isle of Skye and were heading back to Edinburgh on Monday. They invited me to eat with them, and of course I did-- anyone reading this knows that I can never pass up food, especially not homecooked pasta, salad and burgers! We sat around talking for a couple hours after that, until about 10 when I went to SLEEP.

In the morning I fried some eggs from the 'free range' (happy) chickens around the lodge. I was just finishing when the mother walked in and said she'd been thinking about me carrying my pack all the way, as mothers do, and offered to take anything I didn't need and leave it at my hostel in Edinburgh. I'm trusted her, not much a family with 2 daughters can do with American clothes, and besides, I've seen the same shirts and jeans for TOO long so if they don't make it back I'm not too concerned. But I'm sure they will, they were a great family and it was great that they helped me out!