Thursday 10th July, Leeds to Bettyhill

We set off from Leeds at 5am this morning. No sooner had we got over the Pennines on the A66 than the heavens opened. Rain of biblical proportions ensued. At least we now know why they don’t play cricket in Scotland!

We had a good journey, if a little slow going after Inverness. The highlight was seeing potentially the smallest camper van in the world – on the single-track A-road with passing places from Tain to Melvich – with the names Vera and Fred emblazoned on the back.

Pleased to report that Becca is already disillusioned with being on the road with her Dad. So far the very familiar refrain, “You are such a loser” has been heard every hour. Becca spent the vast proportion of today sat on the back seat wearing her hoody like a straight-jacket, with the hood pulled up over her face and i-pod plugged in, only surfacing to complain about the music in the car.

We’ve had a few organisation hitches. The cycling clothing hasn’t arrived, but fortunately every rider recognised that this was a strong possibility and brought spares. The hotel rooms were under-booked and we are not ceratin we have the right insurance on the cars. So far Becca wins the award for most obvious mistake, by leaving her helmet at home on the kitchen table. Otherwise everything is hunky-dory.

Bettyhill, where we are staying tonight seems to be appropriately named. I’m not looking forward to the last mile of tomorrow’s journey. If indeed I get that far!

Mike Tomlinson.

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This entry was posted by Mike Tomlinson on Friday, July 11th, 2008 at 7:45 am and is tagged with Jane's Appeal, Jane's Appeal and is posted in the category Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.