Saturday 24 September 2022

BikePacking; Day 3 of a 4 day ride...

 



Next morning we were up early and cooked breakfast under a clearing sky, this morning we just had a few miles along the former old railway line to Fort Augustus where we would spend some time with a cafe stop and restock any food we would need before starting the ascent up the Corrieyairack Pass...











Second breakfast/brunch!








The Corrieyairack Pass is the jewel in the Military Roads constructed by General George Wade after 1745 and the Scottish defeat at Culloden Moor, these roads were constructed by the English troops to join the English forts and try pacify the Scottish Clans... it worked.. for a little while...
THE Scots being absorbed into the British Army was the making of still some of the finest British Regiments today... a tribute to the Scots...





Up and up we climbed as behind a lovely view down Loch Ness





Hike a bike up the northern side hairpin bends, designed to allow horse drawn gun carriages and supply wagons to transverse the steep mountainsides safely....



On and on it goes...



Then in a level area a small building appears...
Blackburn Bothy was our stop over for this evening...








Odd wall art.... maybe someone driven crazy by midge bites...



It had been a day of more climbing than miles in the legs and it was good to get there late afternoon and spend some time chilling out and we chatted with another arrival who camped outside - Paul from Sunderland who was cycling the Badger Divide route from Inverness to Glasgow...





Some film of the ride to the Bothy, Songs again by Boards Of Canada; `Sick Times` `Sea Later` and `2014`


More soon...

2 comments:

  1. Looks braw. I cycled the GG Way along the canal from Fort William to Inverness on that old Giant mtb. Its scary to think that must have been around 20yrs ago.

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  2. Amazing scenery there Ped!

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