Day 13

Today started out well with clear skies and stunning views over the bay towards the mainland.
I had left my cycling shoes in the B&B's drying room but they were still sopping so we put them in the Aga for 20 minutes. As a result they were still sopping wet but hot instead of cold which made it more bearable.
The morning was easy riding, with a gradual easy uphill climb for 20 miles or so. I got to thinking how to describe what it is like to my readers back home, and this is what I came up with. Imagine you went to the gym and set the exercise bike on a random program but at a low difficulty and pedalled without stopping for the same length of time as your morning at work. Well that is what it was like, a long but un-demanding aerobic workout. I will come back to this analogy later.
We stopped for a sandwich for lunch at Lairg which was nice. Andy suggested a game of pool because I think he was piqued that I beat him last time (I play about once every 5 years), and I beat him again. I also had a pint of Irn Bru, big mistake, it is disgusting unless you are aged 7 or under.
After lunch we were feeling pretty confident and had about 37 miles left to go before arriving in Tongue. We started climbing again but nothing we couldn't handle. But of course soon the rain came. About 25 miles to go and we were being drenched yet again (5th time this trip, on 4 different days). We stopped at a pub for a coffee and cake, but mostly to dry off. The locals told us that shortly ahead we would enjoy an 8 mile descent followed by a 3 mile challenging climb. We were cheated of the descent because of the headwind, we had to pedal all the way to make any progress. But fortunately they were wrong abut the climb, it was a doddle.
By this time we were nearing Loch Loyal and being absolutley drenched. So I will return to my exercise bike analogy.
Imagine that after your easy morning on the exercise bike you have short lunch break then return to the bike. Only this time some sadist has turned the aircon to max so it is quite cold, and has one of those massive fans which TV companies use blowing at your face, and is spraying you with cold water and occassionally throwing the odd bucket at you too to simulate cars going past, and has taken over the controls of your exercise bike and turned it up from easy to hard. That was our afternoon. Towards the end we were really cold and the only way to stay warm was to cycle harder so while our natural impulse was to find the shelter of a tree to hide under we pushed harder and harder to finish the ride.
We were pretty bedraggled by the time we arrived but delighted to have finished another day, next stop John o Groats!
At Lairg we met another couple of cyclists who gave us £10 each for our charities - Thank You!
I don't want to make today sound all bad. Tongue is beautiful and so peaceful, walking to the hotel this evening the mountains were lit up by the sunset - absolutly stunning.