Project Midge: A Challenge in aid of Footprints Foundation
Day One: Stirling to Inverness
Not the best start! The support vehicle (the minibus) died at Stirling before John, Adam and Tim even climbed onto their bikes. Thankfully, a long-time friend who was on hand to see the team off, happened to have jump leads. While the support team (Bob Holt and his son Will) waited for the AA to come to the rescue, the cyclists set off in bright sunshine. Before long, the sunshine however turned to rain and headwind.
At the end of day one, they arrived cold and wet, and applied folk remedies available in the bar to the aching bodies.
Day Two: Locharron to Gairloch
A breezy start to the day as the team began to climb the 6 mile and 2,000 feet ascent of Balach Na Bah. The first 3 miles were fine…. Then the 40 MPH winds, driving rain and cloud kicked in.
Only one of the three cyclists climb the whole munro – Adam did it, Tim walked some, John walked more.
Then came the descent… John was blown off the road into the scenery, landing headfirst in Peat and narrowly missing some rocks. Apart from a stiff neck and the imprints of the inside of his helmet – and helped by the kindness of strangers – he climbed back up to the road and set off again, very cautiously.
When John reached the other two, Tim was using his bike as a kite.
Once on the other side of Balach Na Bah, there were just 60 miles to Gairloch. Due to a mechanical breakdown, John travelled 10 of those miles in the support vehicle.
Day two was truly the hardest day on a bike the cyclists had ever done.
Day Three: Gairloch to Ledmore
A slight improvement in the weather – cool but fair and ending in bright sunshine. The scenery gives the Alps a run for its money and two RAF Typhoons buzzed the team, clearly having more fun than them.
As for this area in Scotland, there’s no-one around.
More support needed for the support vehicle! The rear window exploded, showering Will with glass. The cyclists are now being hunted down by Autoglass…they can run but they can’t hide.
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