Day 39 – To Culbokie, Black Isle

Thursday 3rd June

The mission for the morning was to ride through Alladale to Dearnich Lodge. The track is part of the Highland 550, but the real attraction is that it passes through the Alladale Wilderness Reserve, which has been relatively recently formed from what used to be a hunting estate. It is Scotland’s pride for rewilding, and been in the news on and off for a while, as they plan to reintroduce the wolf here. Significantly, this is all with EU funding, which will remain in place for another 5 years, until the scheme should be able to stand on its own. One of the ways it does that is by the renovation of former hunting lodges to luxury accommodation for eco-tourism. To help the promotion (I say cynically..) they have managed to attract BBC’s Springwatch team here at present, in the middle of their 3 week run, with their host, Iolo Williams. It’s not a cheap place to stay..

It was to be the dog’s longest bike journey, and was about as much as he can manage without a decent rest. He will just keep going of course, but it’s important to be cautious about future arthritis problems. He was fine. Stimulated by the continual presence of the river; at one stage as I cycled, he swam alongside for a good 5 minutes, with the current. In addition, one of the gillies ferrying the BBC camera crews around had a red fox lab with him, and they got on well. I saw two teams, one guy preparing for the camera to follow an hour or so later. It was interesting to chat with both. A room in the lodge, apparently, ranks as the best accommodation they’ve had. These nature cameramen have been to some places though, and it’s not always a room, often a tent, hide, or bivvy.

It was a superb morning. Warm even, for up here, and Cumbrian dogs. The only other people I met were a group of four bikepacking the new trail between Glasgow and Cape Wrath, called An Turas Mor. I had a look at the route later, and it looks tremendous. They had had only fine weather so far to Day 6, and Amy wind at their backs. The route is here… https://www.anturasmor.co.uk/route

In retrospect I should have stayed where I had left the van, just before the road becomes private at the entrance to the Lodge. But it was relatively early, and I went on to Black Isle.

An Turas Mor | Route & Waymark