Awoke at 7.30 am for breakfast (full English for the rest; cereal and toast for me). Lee picked us up at 8.15 am with bikes still in trailer and drove us the last 12 miles to John O’Groats. The start was overcast, though not too much rain initially. Although the damp conditions weren’t too conducive to hanging around, we posed in front of a sign to Land’s End (the one on the signpost was missing due to constant thefts, apparently), before getting Tom to pose as the signpost (see photo and spot Ray), and finally getting underway at 9.00 am. The first few miles passed quickly due to the euphoria of finally starting our challenge and the sighting of two wild deer dashing across the road in front of us. We paused for some cash and a quick pee stop in Wick (approx 25 miles and last point of civilisation for a while) before the rain really started to pour down. The bad weather plus a general fatigue made the next 10 miles a difficult stretch for me and I was glad to reach the tea room at 35 miles that we’d spotted on the drive up the day before. Thankfully, the tea room was (much to my relief) open and we wandered in, so wet that we daren’t sit down, and enjoyed a brief respite and a hot drink. The rain eased after the break as we hit our first proper climb which, thankfully we all managed without to much stress. We pressed on to Brora (approx 60 miles) for lunch where a passing trucker pointed us in the direction of a lovely cafe where we all enjoyed the special of soup (my favourite) and a cheese and ham toastie. As luck would have it, within 2 minutes of leaving Brora I had my first (and only) puncture of the trip. Fortunately, the bad weather had abated and I was at least able to make the necessary repairs in sunny conditions. The next few miles ticked along though I was struggling with the thought of how far we had to go. Thankfully, the guys let me tuck in for most of the afternoon and eventually we were all buoyed by the sight of the causeway ahead which indicated a left turn out of the headwind we’d experienced all day and only one more climb before Inverness. After the long 4 mile drag to the top the climb I took the lead so that I could direct us to our hotel. With the sun on our right I could see the shadows of the four of us silhouetted against the grassy bank on our left as we rapidly descended down the dual carriageway towards Inverness. At the foot of the descent I noticed a sign on the left showing a separate bike lane over the main bridge. I touched my brakes and almost immediately heard a crashing noise behind me. I turned to see Tom sliding across the road and Corinne turning head over heels behind him. Fortunately, there was a gap in the traffic and apart from Corinne’s really sore wrist, all walked away relatively unscathed. The bikes didn’t fare quite as well with slight buckles to both of Tom’s wheels and (though we’re not sure how) to one of Jon’s. Corinne’s saddle was also bent, but Jon managed to straighten it with a bit of brute force. After composing ourselves, we continued at a much steadier pace to our hotel (Travelodge) where, after storing our bikes in our rooms, we showered and tucked into pizza, garlic bread, and potato wedges, washed down with copious amounts of Fanta, and Coke (delivered by Domino’s). The day ended with us searching the Yellow pages for local bike shops to repair our damaged bikes the next day.