Day 11 - Being chased by a cloud

A fantastic start to today other than the bridge we had to cross to get back on to the main road. This consisted of an iron walk way that you could see all the way through, beside the rail bridge and the same with the stairs that lead down to it. I couldn't manage to get down there without someone in front of me and Stuart very kindly offered to carry my bike but not wanting to appear to be a wuss, I carried it myself. If we hadn't walked across this bridge, the alternative was a 7 mile ride around to the same spot. A very good incentive to overcome vertigo! We had our water stop at the Crask Inn. Siobhan and I had stayed here before when we did a bike trip a few years before. It was good to be back. We had Friendship cake and tea and very welcome it was too. Once we left the Crask, there was a 9 mile downhill (very welcome) to the turn for Bettyhill. We stopped at a particularly beautiful spot for pictures and spotted a herd of deer making their way from one side of the beautiful wilderness to the other. What a majestic sight. Once on the road to Bettyhill, we spotted an ice-cream sign. It was a lovely sunny day but then a nasty black cloud appeared and seemed to be coming our way - we had to finish our ice-creams quite quickly and tried to outrun the inevitable raind by pedalling faster and faster to avoid it but unfortunately it caught us and suddenly we were in the middle of a heavy hail storm! Ouch! Ouch was the cry as the stones pinged off our faces and legs. Luckily, it passed fairly quickly and we were able to enjoy the beautiful scenery. A fairly short ride of 53 miles today so we finished early. We are staying in the Bettyhill Hotel overlooking the sea on the North Coast of Scotland and about to go down to the pub for a meal and a small drink. Tomorrow is the last day and it is only 60 miles to our destination!