Scotland 2018: Second Ride

Tuesday August 28. A got a fairly early start. Again, my objective was the Talisker Distillaryy by way of the single track B885. I misread the map. By the time I stopped and checked, I was too far along the A850 to make turning back shorter, so I just soldered on. It was soon raining harder than Monday and I even had to take off my glasses to be able to see. The scariest thing was going down hill. I never felt the road was slippery but I hated being at too high a speed when being passed by cars. I did see one other rider around Knott. They were going clockwise and had full camping gear, poncho, and looked much more miserable then me.

I dreamed of a nice pub and lunch in Struan. Stopped at a food truck to enquirer and was told that the nearest Pub was 10 miles away in Carbost or Sligachan. I still hoped to visit Talisker but I knew I was soaked through and getting cold, even with all the exercise. I had a burger and chips and then the life saver of a hot chocolate. There was really no protection from the wind. At least the rain had let up a little and I ate behind the food truck with my plate on the garbage can. The picnic benches were too exposed.

I finally had cell phone bars, so I called the Broom Wagon and told them I was going to take the B885 back to Portree and would see them there. My wife thought this was fine but luckily something in my voice prompted the 27 year old daughter to initiate the chase and the Broom Wagon picked me up a couple miles out of Portree. As I suspected, the singe track was fine. Sure, I had to slow way down and get off the road a couple of times but at least when I was passed either going my way or by oncoming, I felt there was plenty of road for me.

I was soaked through. Even had to take the shoe laces out of the sneakers to dry them. But again, the washer/dryer did the job of preparing clothes for the next day and we were off to lunch at Fort Augustis and a night in Inverness. I did not ride Wednesday.