After carefully packing kit (apart from one cycle glove as it turned out) in my new lightweight rucksack, I was picked up at 5.00 am by Jon and Corinne. After unclipping the front wheel, we squeezed my bike into the back of the Mondeo Estate that we’d hired and I squeezed into my seat. After a further 5 minute drive to collect Tom and go through the same procedure, we were off. A while later I woke from the half sleep that I’d fallen into as Jon veered on the motorway to avoid the M6 toll. Odd, I thought, particularly when I woke about 20 minutes later when Jon asked if anyone had noticed the M6 toll exit (muppet!). Fortunately, we managed to avoid any heavy traffic and we made rapid progress to our first break at Stafford services (2.5 hours later). I took over driving for the next few hours (first time in a few years) and we again made good progress, first up to Carlisle, then under Tom’s drive to Perth. With Jon one again at the wheel, I phoned our taxi driver (Lee) who I thought had a strong Scottish accent (turned out to be from Yorkshire, much to Tom and Jon’s amusement) to say we were ahead of schedule. We arrived in Inverness at 5.00 pm where Lee loaded our reassembled bikes into the back of his trailer using bungee cords and bedding and we headed to our hotel in Keiss (pronounced Keece) about 12 miles short of John O’Groats. The long journey by the coast was lovely in the evening sunshine, but highlighted the 120 mile trek that lay before us along the same roads the next day. We arrived at the Sinclair Bay Hotel at 7.00 pm in time to dump our kit and nip to the local shop (only one) for supplies for the following day (Marshmallows, 4-pack of Tunnock’s caramel wafers, and 2 Snickers). We then dined in the hotel restaurant on potato wedges, chilli con carne, and apple crumble; interspersed with a game of darts (Jon tweaked his bicep, those darts are heavy you know), before heading out for a quick stroll to the seafront in the fading light. We spent the final hours of the evening sprawled in the hotel lounge (anyone for twister: not you Jon, too risky!) chatting about cycling and watching Man Utd in the Champion’s League. Went to bed at 10.30 ish.