Day 11 - Fort Augustus to Helmsdale

30/5 Fort Augustus to Helmsdale
10 consequetive days cycling was taking it's toll as OWO had to be woken and infact everybody admitted to being weary. 
Breakfast consisted of a strange porridge - very smooth, but nice. Talk of backsides was back on the menu with OWO suffering the most. My experience was only when sitting on the saddle for long periods I could feel my sit bones (was I getting heavier?)and today would be a long, long day.
Saying farewell to Fort Augustus we headed to Hemsdale with heads held high cycling over highland, Heath and heather. I preferred "headed honwards and hupwards to Helmsdale on the heast coast"!
The sloth had to be unleashed to cover today's mileage estimated to be 97 miles. 
Fort Augustus would be a great place with the sun shining as there are numerous locks on the Caledonian canal joining Loch Ness, but today was cold, grey and spotting with rain. Apparently the Scots have a word for this "Dreach" Strange people!
The road out of Fort Augustus took us along Loch Ness which enabled us to do a spot of Nessie spotting. Needless to say Nessie wasn't spotted but we saw some outstanding scenery despite the murky conditions. There were photo stops along the way. CFE and I took the oppurtunity to buy two mascots for our bikes at Drumnadrochit - a small Nessie which was zip tied to our bikes. A larger Nessie was also purchased for my 10+ month old grandaughter, despite the weight penalty!
Just after Drumnadrochit disaster struck - We found OWO in mild hysteria. Whilst having a well earned rest his bike fell over and broke his satnav bracket. No matter, Super CFE and his sidekick TVR arrived to his rescue. After much faffing around with zip ties, repairs were completed and we were on our way. 
Not far out of Drumnadrochit there was a huge climb which took us to Beauly where we felt a well deserve rest and lunch was due. CFE, who as you know had an eye for a bargain suggested visiting the Co-op for their extemely low priced "meal deal" whilst I searched for a comfortable bus shelter. OWO was still on the road. Re-united we ate in the salubrioius surroundings of Beauly's finest bus shelter.
After Beauly, we headed to Dingwall and then headed north up the A9. This was not fun. Straight into a headwind! It was hard, draining and sole destroying and the fast traffic did not help. At one point as more water was needed, CFE suggested we stop as we came across a roadside cafe. I did not wish to argue. In the cafe we met a guy who had ridden the E2E solo, but supported, over 16 days. We hit the road again into the headwind and after 5-10 minutes CFE exclaimed "There's OWO ahead" Well we felt embarrased as OWO had been fighting the headwind on his own so we pulled in front of him and gave him some respite until we reached Tain at about 5.00 pm, where we again stopped and availed ourselves of Co-op's meal deal. Unable to find a suitable bus shelter we found a pleasant garden to sit in. A young lad was playing on his bike and he came over to chat about football, cycling etc.
Setting off we passed the Glen Morangie distillery where the sign informed us that their whiskey was "Perfected by the 16 men of Tain" - The town looked larger than having only 16 men! Some very frustrated women we presumed. We then passed over the Dornoch Firth bridge and up along the east coast passing the retirement home for ex theives "Dunrobin Castle". The day was long and it was after 7pm when CFE and I saw a town in the distance and went for it, only to find it was Portgower and not Helmsdale (CFE hurled a volley of abuse at the road sign depleting even more of his dwindling energy supply). We trudged on and cycled into Helmsale 10 minutes later at 7.35.
Phoning ahead to see if anywhere would be open after 8.00pm to eat the landlady at our B&B informed us that La Mirage would be opened until 9pm and a hotel may still be serving food. Needing to eat we had agreed at Tain that in view of the late arrival we would go directly to "La Mirage" and order a fish supper (quaint scottish phrase for fish and chips). Yes, La Mirage was a fish and chip shop! For a bank holiday sunday evening it was busy! CFE and I ordered our fish suppers and waited along with others. One guy gave me his change as a donation. Before our order had been cooked OWO arrived and he managed to order his straight away so we all dined together in our sweaty cycling clothes in the chip shop.
Shattered, we phoned our landlady for directions and after finding the accomodation we decided we were not too tired to go for a drink despite cycling exactly 100 miles over 11 hours 18 minutes of which 7 hours 44 mins was rivet polishing time. Only 1068 meters of climbing today.
Just one other note for today was that when we walked into the public bar of one of the local hostelrys we were met by stares and silence! We felt as if we had walked into someone's front room as there was a TV showing Little Britian and the barman was playing crib with a customer. In a small room off the bar were a few guys all on laptops. Strange!
Despite feeling like aliens we ordered 3 drinks, drank up and quickly left to find a more welcoming establishment. We did and only managed one other drink. We could celebrate tomorrow as this would be our last day.