Day 8 - Reinforcements, a Dreich and Invermess

Ride stats: 91.2 miles, 2,388 feet of climbing, total time 7 hrs 41 mins, riding time 6 hrs 14 mins

Today's ride was never going to be able to match the highs of yesterday's leg and so it proved but the evening made up for it.

Ian and Jeff set off just a little later than normal this morning - they were strangely very chilled out and the girls kept having to jolly them along, finally leaving about 20 minutes later than normal.
While the boys tackled the first hill of the day Julie and Joy set off back into Fort William to meet up with new support team members, Jill and Jo who arrived via the overnight sleeper from London.  Apparently the Harry Potter steam train, the Jacobite, was in the station alongside their train.  Sadly we don't have the visual corroboration (i.e. a photograph) to show you which is a shame for all you Harry Potter fans.

Meanwhile Ian and Jeff were heading alongside Loch Ness in what is referred to by the locals as a Dreich, a combination of dull, overcast, drizzly, cold and miserable weather.  Although we weren't miserable, we were riding along beside the Loch into a headwind with overcast and misty conditions that made it difficult to take in the landscape. The Loch is 23 miles long and you would have thought the loch side road would be flat but there were lots of short, sharp ups and downs which combined with the weather turned it into a bit of a slog.

The plan was for us to ride around 35 to 40 miles before the girls overtook us and we could have our first refuelling stop. Unfortunately the train was 30 minutes late which meant this didn't happen until we had ridden 50 miles. It was was worth the wait though and it was really lovely to see Jill and Jo - that gave our spirits a big lift.

We fancied a hot drink and suggested that we push on to the first cafe we met but there were none  before we got to Inverness. 
It was at this point that Inverness turned into "Invermess".  Jeff called the support crew to find out where they had stopped and was told to go into the town and follow the route on the A9 over the bridge where we would fine them by the tourist information office.  Not being so well versed in "support crew speak" Jeff and Ian thought the term "the bridge" referred to one bridge and not the three bridges it actually turned out to be!  It caused a bit of a delay but provided many laughs for us all. 
While parked in tourist car park in Inverness waiting for the boys to arrive the girls were given a donation from Rennie and his wife.

Now having only 32 miles left it was decided to push on and complete this in one hit.  A short downhill section led to the last climb of the day and the weather took a significant tuen for the worse.  Heavy showers now started to fall as we went up the hill but then stopped as we came down the other side - a relief that was tempered by a huge downpour we could see heading our way.
This hit us just as we started to cross the bridge over Cromarty Firth and was so heavy that we had trouble seeing the potholes in the road.  This is 1.5 miles long but we had no option but to push on as the rain filled our waterproof Sealskinz socks.  A short stop was required to unload the excess water we now carried.

The rest of the ride was pretty flat but riding into a strengthening headwind and continual heavy showers made us cold but immensely grateful to arrive at Hill of Fearn near Tain where our host and friend of Jill and Ian, Robert was waiting outside his house beneath his umbrella. 

Relieved, wet and cold, Robert took us to his friend Terry's house where he had arranged for Julie, Joy, Jo and Jeff to sleep.  Ian and Jill were staying with Robert, Ros and their daughter Laila.

Ros and Robert were absolutely fantastic hosts and Ros had prepared food that would have put many restaurants to shame - double helpings of everything for everyone proving the case.  We had a really great evening that will be one of the highlights of our trip.

Their hospitality is being extended to breakfast tomorrow and packed lunches for the day.  Generous barely does justice to describe our welcome and we can't thank Robert, Ros, Laila and Terry and his wife Jean enough for their hospitality.