Day 12

New lanark to comrie croft, crieff

72 miles

Beautiful sunny day. Stunning scenery. Really, really jaw droppingly gorgeous. Round corner after corner as we climbed and climbed we saw spectacular woodland, lochs, open moorland, pine forests ...wow. And those views went on for hours. We were blessed by the weather.

As we left comrie croft I had noticed a front end shudder. I asked pete to look over it at morning coffee. My headset was loose. There was travel in it. It was uncomfortable to ride, sending vibrations into my already very painful shoulders. Pete tightened it but there was still travel in it. I needed a full repair really but the group were leaving.

So, onwards. And the vibrations went with me. This was the hilliest day with fast sweeping descents through the highlands. But you wouldn't want to take them quickly with a feeling like the front end has a square tyre on it,particularly under braking. Ouch. Painful. Also unnerving.

This was a very hard day for me. The morning causing intense left knee pain which bizarrely left me in the afternoon and the day generally wrecking my shoulders.

We were late into newtonmore hostel. I had a stomach upset too by that time and didn't fancy food but felt weak.

My headset needed work. It was dismantled by pete. The bearings had come out of the unit in the headset. Pete assembled it with help from heather. I stood by, feeling faint, cold, shivery and poorly. I tried to help glynis with jo's gearing problems. I popped in to the hostel where a wood burning stove had been lit. That was glowing. It was lovely. I made a hot water bottle and put it in bed.

By 830pm the headset was fixed. Yippee. I wouldn't be in the van the next day. Just needed to sort out the stomach now.

Suzanne gave me some rehydration sachets and I managed some pasta for tea. Heather massaged my shoulders and I did her lower back. And then at 930 bed for me.

I dozed and woke with indigestion. I tried to relieve it with cool water. Eventually at 11pm I got up and sought out some rennies. Thanks lucy. Then sleep.

I felt unwell today. In pain. Weak through reduced food intake. Worried about my bike, my stomach, my closeness to fainting on the bike or falling asleep and the ride was intense. Particularly drafting on a stretch of the busy A9, not for the fainthearted at anytime.

So glad when sleep came.

Hard day. Was only slightly glowing tonight.