............ Lands end to John o'Groats cycle ride 2014 .........: Day 15, Sunday 14th September 2014

Luss - Glencoe

One last photo at the edge of Loch Lomond before we left

all ready for the off by 9:10am, todays ride was two separate tasks, the first 20 miles would be riding along the relatively flat shores of the loch, the following 35 miles we would have some long climbs up to 1000 feet then up and down several times.

the cycleway at the edge of Loch Lomond the views don't get much

better than this, it was only missing a splash of sunshine.

we came across the Drovers Inn (below) established in 1705 on the
Stirling border it was steeped in history both inside and out.

The Drovers Inn provided us with a nice place to stop for a cup of coffee, this is where we saw our first man in a kilt, cleaning up outside the pub, but it seemed rude to take his photo at the time, I wish we had done it now as he was the first and the only one we saw.

Once you start riding in Scotland the hills and valleys provide some amazing sights and views, the down side to this is that there are very few roads because they mostly follow the valleys and this leads to the roads being busier, one of the roads we were forced to travel along was the A82 everything heading north west of Glasgow follows this road.

The road had low volumes possibly because it was a Sunday but the traffic was very fast moving. We felt uncomfortable enough to put on our hi-vis coats turn on rear lights to make ourselves as conspicuous as possible, from our training rides we had found it could be difficult for a car to pass four cyclists in a line, if they meet an oncoming car the cyclist at the front can get squeezed, so we decided to split into two groups, both Jo's went off in front and Andy and Beaky followed at around 250 yards this seemed to help traffic pass.

Below is one of the uses of the Garmin it will show you the profile of the route to come.

At around 30 miles we approached Tyndrum famous for the Green Welly Stop. We stopped just before at the the tourist information car park because it had public toilets and benches what more could you ask for?

An elderly lady sat at the benches at the same time as ourselves, we chatted as we ate lunch she was on a coach trip around the highlands with her husband, we chatted about our ride from Lands End, and explained that we struggled a little with some of the hills because there are so few to practice on in Lincolnshire, the lady's husband returned and she told him we we from Lincolnshire, they lived in York but he knew Lincolnshire very well having been stationed at RAF Elsham Wold during the second world war, he went on to tell us about 103 Squadron / 576 Squadron, it is credited with more operational sorties than any other 1 Group Squadron, and consequently suffered the group's highest losses.

Of the 248 bombers lost on operations flying from Elsham Wolds, 198 were from No. 103 Squadron.
losses were 28 Vickers Wellingtons, 12 Halifaxes and 208 Lancasters.

He also told us about one of the Elsham Wolds Lancasters, Lancaster III ED888 M2 (Mike Squared) which served with both Nos. 103 and 576 squadrons, it held the Bomber Command record for operational sorties, completing 140 between May 1943 and December 1944. A total of 974 operational hours.

He told us of a book we should buy that was written by one of the crew about one of the missions they had flown, as he left for his coach he invited us to the reunion to be held later this year.

I can't believe we had been lucky enough to meet one of the two surviving members of 617 Squadron and a member of 576 squadron.

Then we had to get focussed on the ride for the afternoon with its continuous rise and falls it was going to be a hard afternoon.

There were some long climbs but equally we had the pleasure of the long downhill sections, on the downhill sections you have to be careful you control the speed as it can creep up very quickly.

Above is Lock Tulla the start of Loch Tulla the road is nice & flat

then the incline starts and it gets steeper and steeper above are both Jo's as they

started the climb to the viewing area of Loch Tulla

The steeper hills are where Jo T comes into her own she says she can't ride up hills but

she is like a machine and just keeps on going until she get to the top and then waits for us

Beaky dishing out chocolate bars as a well done gift, very welcome thanks

the road climbs around 500 feet in 1.25 miles not a massive climb, but it seems relentless on your legs but the views at the top are rewarding.

In the layby at the top of the climb is a memorial to the mountaineers that have lost

their lives while climbing the mountains in the area

The top plaque in more detail

Not much farther along the road we passed another milestone as we entered the Highlands

The James Bond fans may recognise this road from SkyFall where bond takes M to his family home.

the hills looked very sinister with the tops shrouded in cloud

this felt like the most dangerous road we travelled on, in terms of speeding cars,

a coach squeezed past within inches of our handlebars.

Just before we arrived at the campsite we came across a cycle hire company set up in a large shed in someones garden, we called in to see if they could repair Beaky's rear wheel as more spokes had broken, Beaky explained that it was breaking spokes, the guy said grumpily "thats because it's a standard Giant shit wheel", He said if we brought it back he could probably do something with it that evening.

We left and headed for the camp we arrived a few minutes later, the tent pitched for us, it was always nice to see it up when you arrive we were always grateful when Lynn and H had gone to the effort of putting it up for us.

A quick stop for the team photo

Andy and Beaky decided the deer would look better if they had helmets on

Then a mad rush to get beaky's wheel back to the bike shed, when we arrived the guy apologised for his comments earlier, explaining he was trying to repair a gear change mech for a guy who had planned all his life to ride Lands end to John o'Groats and he didn't think it could be repair and a replacement would need to be ordered, but it all ended well as he had managed to fix it for him. We left beaky's wheel with him and headed off for some tea.