Day 12 Evanton to Tongue

Our penultimate day started with another broken spoke, this time on Kens bike. Luckily this was just outside the bunkhouse, so we helpfully sat on the comfy sofa out of the drizzle while the boys fixed it. We had a couple of miles along the flat to warm up before the first hill. The rain soon stopped and we were back in the beautiful Scottish countryside.

Cadha Mor presented us with one of the finest vistas in the whole of Scotland! This was our first stop after a good blast over the moor on a nice single track road. We descended into the valley and through Bonar Bridge which was the start of the next long incline. We made good progress, with no incidents all the way to Lairg.

Lunch was rather leisurely today and consisted of pies, bagels, chicken, chocolate and winegums. We'd scoffed as much as we could and it was still only just gone midday. With 38 miles to cover in the afternoon, we were all reasonably confident that it would be an early finish. However we hadn't taken into account 3 puncture stops!

It was a steady climb after lunch up to the Crask Inn, which must be one of the remotest pubs around. There wasn't anything for miles. The 'A' road we were cycling on was single track with passing places. It was a great ride. We stopped to take more photos. This was the start of a succession of 3 punctures in 12 miles, which slowed our average speed. All fell to the tandems front wheel (now a clear leader), which was quite frustrating! On the last fix we used electrical tape on the rim for further protection which seemed to do the trick.

Another climb lead to the final descent into Tongue on the north coast of Scotland, our resting place for our final night...John O'Groats tomorrow. Very excited about finishing this epic journey and hopefully clicking over 1000 miles!