Day 12 – to Carrbridge (68 miles)

Simon decided to have smoked haddock for breakfast this morning (delicious) – Brittany stuck to porridge. We were still quite nervous about the weather (it was raining) and the climb up to Drumochter Pass.

As it was, the weather improved quickly once we got going and the ride past Blair Castle up to Drumochter Pass was a long but very, very gradual climb. The route 7 bicycle path used cycle tracks and disused, replaced sections of the A9 which followed General Wade's military road through the Cairngorms (which the English used to subdue the Scottish Highlanders). The signs before we started the ascent warned of no food or shelter for 31 kilometres and possible snow.



The sections on the thin bicycle path running alongside the new, busy A9 were not very pleasant – but having whole sections of the old A9 to ourselves (and the long-horned sheep) was great. Simon is now quite good at cycling over cattle grids. Some of the narrow grids on the path were only inches wider than the bike.

The views from the summit were stunning and there was still snow on several of the highest peaks.

The gradual descent from the summit was fun and we averaged over 20 mph for over an hour. At one time we startled some sheep that ran just in front of us for over 200 metres as their lambs tried to keep up with them on the other side of the fence (we ended up changing up a gear to overtake them).

We grabbed a quick lunch at a roadside cafe/tourist information centre – we had intended to eat at Dalwhinnie, but it seemed like an abandoned town. After lunch, we joined a B road heading out of Kingussie, were stopped to look at Ruthven Barracks – ruined barracks that were originally built to subdue to Jacobites. The road then took us through the beautiful Inschrach forest/marshes to Aviemore – Scotland's premier skiing resort town.

Brittany spotted what she thought might be blueberry bushes under trees in the marshes – this was confirmed later by locals in the pub when we finally reached Carrbridge.



We finally received a decent amount of sunshine today – which was a welcome surprise. Here's hoping there will be more of the same as we head down to sea level at Inverness tomorrow morning.