Day 4 - Big Hills With Sunny Spells

After waking up at 04:30 freezing cold camped out at the foot of Ben Nevis. I decided to go get a hot shower to warm my core back up. It worked a treat! It was also good to warm my muscles up in preparation for the brutal ride ahead of us.

It hadn't rained all night and was a little windy so both our tents were dry! This made us both ohh so happy because it was so much easier and quicker to pack away and reload the bikes. With smiles on our faces and some peaking blue skies, we headed down from Glen Nevis to Fort William to grab some breakfast from a great little cafe we found last time we were up to this way. The last time we were in Fort William was to climb Ben Nevis, 3 days before we ran the Loch Ness marathon... This made perfectly good sense at the time... Now the thought of only 3 days recovery is blasphemy!

After our large and hearty breakfast, that included a slice of coffee and walnut cake, we pootled on down the road with Loch Lomond as our goal. We made cracking progress on the A82 that was made even better by a wide cycle path taking us off the main road and then the sunshine came out (I heard Becky behind me scream at something sounding like she was angry, but it was, in fact, her excitement to see sunshine) the further we plodded on, the better the views became.

Pretty much since we started, Becky has had a slow puncture. She's riding some tubless bike wheels and tires (similar to a car wheel and tire) however the tires seem to be old and are cracking, this is where I think the air leak is. So at some point every day. We have to stop and give beckys back tired some big pumps.

As we crossed the bridge and road past the "Glencoe national park" sign, we stopped to put some air in. Thankfully we did it then, as for the next 2-3 hours we were climbing up the hill! At the start, it was a pain climbing up to him, but the further and further we climbed, the more incredible the views became. The sun was out too making our mood and the views even better.

Eventually, we got to what we thought was the top and took some photos. It wasn't, so we climbed some more. The ground levelled out and became windy and flat. So we stopped, ate some jam doughnuts (they were amazing) and did some stretches. Becky also went for her 15,000th wee too. The descent wasn't anywhere near as good as we had hoped for and it very quickly turned into another, less glamourous assent! Once again, we eventually got to the top, I ate something and stretched while Becky went for a pee. (I swear she's not even going for a week. She's just wanting time away from me)

The decent was incredible, honestly, we must have got 10 miles of free rolling downhill! At one point I hit 40mph. What has seemed quite difficult with my bike all loaded up? Halfway down the epic hill, we stopped for a bite to eat and to celebrate we had made it to Loch Lomond. Lunch was brilliant but the time sat down enjoying ourselves gave the swelling time to rise in both of our knees. Becky's Achilles had started to give her some trouble too. So between the two of us, we nearly make up one functional human being.

Halfway down Loch Lomond, we realised that you are not allowed to wild camp as it's a protected national park! Bloody typical. So we carried on cycling until we found a campsite. The site was a great little find and we got a backpacker discount! Win. We pitched up right by the lake and got eaten alive by midges, honestly somehow one got into my bib shorts... How or why they would want to go in there I don't know.

After a quick wash and discovering our sunburnt father Christmas/alcoholic faces. We headed out, hobbling down the street to get some food. We found a great little cafe where we ordered a mountain of food. Becky had an amazing vegan dessert, so much so she wanted to order another one, but she ran out of patients and so we left.

The weather has been on point all of the days, we knew we should make the most of it. So we took a romantic hobble on the beach, bent down as far as our bodies would let us, and skimmed some stones on the flat loch. We strolled up the pier where I chose to let out a monstrous fart, ruining the mood so we headed off to bed.