Nessie, the Highlands and a long climb - Day 11

A day without rain! We started early considering that the last 20 miles of this day's ride were uphill. 

 

What we did not anticipate were the A9 roadworks just after we started. which detoured us for at least 5km on gravel paths. But once these had been conquered the promised downhill to Inverness was very welcome indeed. 

As we entered Inverness, we rode straight through the UHI Inverness campus - campus to campus in 2 days 😁.

Shortly after UHI Inverness, we encountered a further detour across the Kessock Bridge however that was easily overcome and we started our ride across the Black Isle. 

This route however meant that we had to miss our rendezvous with Nessie - we'll have to come back to do that. 

 

We quickly reached Dingwall where we stopped for coffee at the Highland Farm Cafe. Here we encountered another group doing LEJoG, albeit over 22 days ... twice the time of our ride.  And all of them on e-bikes.

 After climbing Struie Hill,  we dropped into the Kyle of Sutherland,

 

crossed the Bonar Bridge, and finally turned North onto the A836 which goes up the Strath Vagastie to our overnight stop.