It was bloody freezing overnight! Previous days had been quite chilly early doors, but this morning was really cold. Nipping out of the tent for an early toilet call at the dawn chorus I noticed that there was ice forming on the lower edge of the tent. After breakfast I packed the tent up, saying my farewells to Kenny who was up before me, then set off on the uphill stretch to Jamestown where I turned off, passing what looked like the ruins of an old church before heading onto a climb through some woods.
Here I lost my route, as I couldn’t see any obvious track ahead of me, nor could I see any helpful tyre tracks from other Roamers, and so I turned round and retraced my route to get back onto the A835 for a short while before turning off for Marybank, crossing the mighty River Conon again. At Marybank I took the road towards Urray, passing the Urray West Church of Scotland and heading on into Muir of Ord where I spotted the pagoda chimneys of the distillery. At the junction by the railway station I was waiting to turn right when I noticed Kenny riding in from the direction of Conon Bridge and caught up with him for a chat. After a few navigational issues the route took a fabulous track through Spital Wood which gave the first glimpses of the pan flat Beauly Firth with reflections from the bank opposite.
At one point I came through a gate in the woods into open fields on my right, and here I spotted a couple of what I believe were Red Kites engaging in a bit of play fighting. I stopped to watch for a while, during which time a third Red Kite appeared, before setting off again along the singletrack, meeting three bikepackers going in the opposite direction. Eventually the track came to an end at a road, where I turned left and headed for Redcastle Viewpoint on the shores of Beauly Firth.
Here I took a photo of an old boat with a heron on the Firth shore before turning back inland to head into Redcastle estate, passing the ruins of the medieval Redcastle and a rather nice looking farmhouse to follow a track which came out on the road running along the side of the Firth. This ran smoothly through to Charleston passing Coulmore Bay Holiday Park, and I also saw a small sign on a post at the side of the road saying “Do Not Photograph This Sign”. From Charleston I’d planned to detour to the Black Isle Brewery inland, as I’d missed this on my previous trip to the Black Isle. I climbed up out of Charleston to pick up NCN 1 running alongside the A9 for a while before dropping onto B roads for the three mile ride to the brewery.
I bought myself a cycle jersey and sat outside with a couple of beers enjoying the sun and chatting with a guy from the shop about bikepacking kit. As I was starting to feel the midday sun I finished my beer and retraced my route back to Charleston to follow the cycle route to Inverness. At North Kessock I came across Graeme and Zak sitting outside a cafe and stopped for a chat. After the cafe a short steep ramp took me up to the Kessock Bridge separating the Moray and Beauly Firths, and I rode over on the cycle path where I got a superb view back over the Beauly Firth to the mountains in the west.
Over the bridge I turned off on the outskirts on Inverness and headed into the city. Inverness was very very busy, and after a week of riding through very quiet out of the way spots came as a brutal assault on my senses. By now I was starting to feel a headache coming on and decided to head to my accommodation for a refreshing shower and rest. I crossed the Greig Street Bridge over the River Ness and saw a cyclist coming in the opposite direction. It was Kenny again, off to catch his bus back to Glasgow. We said our farewells and I booked into my room, then showered. My headache wasn’t going away, so rather than meet the other Roamers for a beer I picked up some supplies, including some paracetamol, from Tesco and went back to rest in my room. It was the end of an absolutely superb week of roaming through Scotland!
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