Hi,

Today was shorter than yesterday, but slightly more hilly, although the gradient map looked the exact opposite of the last two days: completely flat to start with, then a big hilly section. However, the hilly half was actually more up and down.

We started in Balloch, cycling around Loch Lomond, stopping to take photos with Ben Lomond in the background. The gradient was completely flat, but for the first few miles, the bike paths' surfaces were terrible, while the roads' were nice - another opposite to yesterday. The bike paths then smoothed out and because the road was very busy along the Loch, they were preferable, staying on them until the end of the Loch. Just after we re-entered the road, we stopped for our first break at a lovely Caf� overlooking the loch. Away from the loch, the gradient started to change with a gentle but quite long ascent, after which we planned to stop in a lay-by for a chocolate bar. Just before we turned into said lay-by a familiar Kia entered it - Grandad and Otti had caught up with us! We agreed to meet up with them in an hour's time for lunch overlooking Loch Tulla. The reason they had so easily found us was because we were following the A82 all the way to Glencoe - in fact, we stay on it until Fort William - a good chunk of tomorrow as well. This takes the record for the longest time on one road (so far) - it will be 68, more than doubling the 30 mile stretch before Moffat. Although the road was quite busy at the start and we did of course get plenty of idiotic drivers, for most of the way the surfaces were smooth, the traffic manageable and the views...

Starting from the off, the scenery today was non-stop spectacular, the flat section giving us brilliant views over Loch Lomond with Ben Lomond and the first hills of the Highlands on the other side. As we ascended up, we caught fantastic scenes of the mountains and lakes. I've already told you that we had lunch at the Loch Tulla viewpoint, and it was probably the single greatest scene we've had so far - the Loch in the foreground, with huge mountains and valleys stretching for miles. The cycling after that proceeded to be the greatest series of views we've had, the mountains rising high above us on either side, occasionally catching a glance of some snow or a long, winding stretch of road we'd just been down. Then, going down into Glencoe, the mountains squeezed in closer, steeper and rockier - I reckon the biggest impediment to our speed today was actually the fact that we kept stopping to take photos! They can't capture it completely, but they are still pretty spectacular - definitely check them out on Facebook.

Now, the descent into Glencoe was supposed to be the 50 mph hill. Either that wasn't it, or the chap who told us was both pedalling very hard and hadn't been on any of the other fast hills in the south (or he wouldn't have mentioned it). We only hit 30 mph, but sustained it for about 3 miles and combined with the brilliant views, it was still the best descent so far.

Our pace today wasn't exactly sloppy either - we averaged 14.5 miles an hour, which is equal to our fastest day so far, which was also a little bit flatter. Down the hills, we frequented the mid twenties, probably staying there for about 10 miles in total. One the last proper uphill bit, we actually did 18 miles an hour - impressive for the flat, let alone a hill, albeit a gentle one.

I am a little worried about tomorrow. There is really only one climb after the long flat section and it does then descend all the way to Inverness, but there's a catch. It's a back-breakingly brutal hill, as steep as anything we've done and goes on for 5.25 miles... I had to get off after less than one mile at that kind of gradient (some of you may not have noticed - I reported it very subtly. Sarcasm).

Oh well.

Goodbye (may be not writing again!!),

Alex