Wednesday July 2, 2014

What a great day, I had the biggest grin on my face all day.  The route that the fella told us about today was awesome. Turn left at the white arch, he said.  This was the start of an awesome route, but no indication on this stone that it was part of Route 7.

We left the campsite at 8:15 under sunny, but cool skies.  It got cloudier and cooler during the day but it was an amazing ride. The route was easy to follow and ranged from single lane road to limestone trail and then back on to a single lane road.  We followed the old A9 which was adopted by Sustrans for Route 7 of the National Cycle Route.  It was amazing, no cars at all, although we paralleled the A9 almost all day.

The route took us through forest, glen and hills.  We climbed out of Blair Atholl to a height of 462 metres, but it was easy, gradual climbing.  As soon as we crested the summit of the hill, the wind picked-up and we had the best tail wind for the next 40 kms!

The scenery was stunning, we saw Scottish heather, babbling burns, lochs and snow on the hills.  A perfect day of cycling.

We got to Aviemore just after 2:00 and decided to stay in the YHA, because of the wind.  After we had showered, it started to drizzle and continued for most of the afternoon and evening.  Aviemore is a big climbing and walking area, almost every other store is an outdoor store.

The only thing that marred a perfect day was Ralf had a flat tire, which turned out to be a broken spoke.  Hopefully we can get it fixed tomorrow and be on the road later in the day.  We have a warmshowers just north of Inverness tomorrow night.