Rogue Runners '23 - Day 7

 Day 7 - hmm - bit of a disappointment.

We set off from our hotel on a schedule, we had to be back by 14:00ish as we had a tour of the local distillery booked.

We headed out of town & soon found ourselves following a coach on the road to Drumnadrochit. This was bad news as it meant the coach would be going all along the north shore of Loch Ness. Coaches have been something of a bane on some of the routes on this trip.

I managed to get past the coach & after a while, the others did too, but then I was stuck behind something else doing 30 on a 60mph road.

Along the north shore we were again held up, but I got past & called "road's clear" several times, but no-one appeared in my mirror.

Leaving the Loch side I stopped in a layby & took some photos, no-one appeared, I drove off calling "anyone hear me" over the radio - no-one replied. I drove on again & after a while yellow appeared behind me & I hailed it on my radio but got no response. About this time I realised my radio wasn't working.

We were at least all together at the cake stop where I encouraged a small French boy (with parents & grandparents) to sit in the Stylus.

Not a real coo

After that we rolled on along some roads with twists, turns, undulations & stunning scenery, almost always behind another vehicle doing 30 on a 60mph road. Eventually I got free of the traffic at a junction where the SatNav showed the line to follow going both ways, but it said "turn right". This section was planned as a loop though a scenic valley, but after four miles, the "Turn Around Where Possible" message suggested it had all gone wrong.

On my return from the T.W.E.R.P. I met Richard & Robert coming the other way, but time was pressing as the ETA was now almost half past two.

I followed the route to the A9 which was just horrible with average speed cameras on all but the dual carriageway sections & while getting safely past a lorry in preparation for turning left in a mile & a half, I noticed the camera van. Was I over the limit? I didn't think so, time will tell, I suspect not as the speedo reads higher than the SatNav.

So I rolled into the hotel car park at 14:10 having not re-fueled to save time & we sauntered to the distillery for our tour, which was the high point of the day, pleasant & informative & when we staggered back to the hotel, Steve had arrived from Dunnoon, a curry was ordered & the banter flowed.

But we're moving south again tomorrow, so with much packing & organising to do, we retired early.