LEJOG Day 8: Kingussie to Inverness

Metrics	Daily Total	Cumulative Total
Distance	85.7	1319.3
Ascent	674	12353
Riding Time	3h 37m 1	56h 06m 5
Calories Burned	949	31550

Other Daily Stats You May Be Interested In

Average Speed: 23.7 km/h

Max Speed: 68.0 km/h

Average Power: 128 watts

Max Power: 809 watts

Average Cadence: 75 rpm

Max Heart Rate: 151 bpm

Does an 85km ride count as a rest day? In my current world yes, and it was lovely even with the on/off rain for the majority of the journey. Apparently, according to the Met Office, no rain and a tailwind...wrong on both accounts, but wind, rain or sun, the machine is coming through. I think like other areas such as the Lakes District, there is a general caveat that there is a 50% chance of rain at any time in th Highlands.

The Highlander Hotels hospitality was amazing, couldn't do enough for me whilst I stayed there. Room was pretty comfy as well, and if it wasn't for the next rooms dog rudely barking at 5am, I could have had my first partial sleep in - oh well, another day maybe.

Not far out of Kingussie, stands the Ruthven Barracks, and a lovely site to come around the corner to. It was build as one of four identical infantry garrisons, built to discourage further rebellion after the Jacobite rising of 1715 - and you thought this was all about the pretty pictures.

Next came Feshiebridge, there are a few somethingbridge place names around this area, and after seeing the amazing Stone Bridge here, I wander what the other bridges have in store.

From there it was a relatively quiet run up to Aviemore, the scenery was looking pretty dramatic with those looming clouds, but the rain generally kept my camera firmly in the dry pocket. It did venture out every now and again, between showers, and there was some lovely vista's to capture.

Obviously a windy section between the hills.

The sun is trying it's best to come out.

After Aviemore, as I reached the top of today's climb and started the decent to Inverness, the landscape became a little more dramatic, and the sun added some much needed Colour and warmth to the scenery.

I would quite happily live in this little house, miles away from anywhere and sheep are your lawn mowers - there was even a butterfly, which I was too slow to capture.

There has to be a shot of a bridge at some point, and this one caught my eye as I was coming out of a cafe with a coffee and giant sugar cube. It wasn't actually a giant sugar cube, but with it being a white chocolate covered rice crispy square, it was the next best thing. As I was standing next to my bike, drinking my coffee and slowly developing diabetes from the aforementioned treat, I heard a father say to his young son "You can have a go on it after we have a cake". The son replied/demanded "no, now!". This back-n-forth went for a few rounds before the father gave up and said "quick play, then cake". 2 seconds into play time the child fell down and started crying, cue the mother, who said "we agreed playtime after food". Before the dad had a chance to respond, the child said "Dad made me". The look from mother to father was priceless.

The road to Inverness although short today, has been 8 days in the making, and it was a lovely ride down into the city. I have never been to Inverness before, and only had an hour to look around before the shops rudely shut - to clarify that, I rudely expected them to be open as I forgot it was Sunday.

Inverness, I will be back (with more time on my hands) mid week, so prepare to be slightly explored (I am not going to be doing to much).

So tomorrow is the penultimate day, 150km lies between me and my destination - a glamping spot...am quite intrigued to say the least. There are of course some hills to climb (1300m to be exact), but after tomorrow it is the last day...and I don't want to think about that just yet.

Sleep now, for tomorrow I ride.