My alarm woke me from a reasonable slumber at around 7 am on the Sunday morning giving me sufficient time to get ready for my breakfast at 7.30. I'm no travel expert, but the bed and breakfast accommodation offer is simple and rewarding - firstly a bed for a good nights sleep, followed by breakfast to set you up for the day ahead.

This second day of the adventure was the first proper day on the road, in the saddle.  Breakfast was delicious; a vegetarian full Scottish breakfast which was my first time trying veggie haggis (delicious!) and also oat cakes (also delicious!).

Ensuring I took the opportunity to fuel up I tucked in to an additional couple of slices of toast and honey before getting my bags packed up, bike loaded and water bottles filled. Satnav and Buble took up their places within a pocket on top of my handlebar bag, with the post code of the next accommodation location typed in I was probably ready to go.

So off I set.......

.......satnav retraced our cycle route from the previous evening through what appeared to be the local hospital and its neighbouring air ambulance landing area, followed by a quick double back down to the main road leading to the magnificent bridge leading out of Inverness and the A9 heading north. As I dropped down a gear or two to climb up the bridge cycle path (a separate lane specifically for pedestrians and bikes) I passed the football ground which is home to Inverness Caledonian Thistle.

At the crest of the bridge I stopped to capture the view looking west towards Beauly Firth and continued under satnavs guidance to then meander down to the road adjacent the Firth, the village of North Kessock. From here I was taken via totally cycle friendly, traffic free roads and cycle paths on the journey north.

I should also say now as I was only a few miles into the ride that my plan was to complete around 100 miles of cycling on the first two days to get upto John O'Groats to then head back down towards Liverpool. Whilst I was reasonably confident in my level of fitness to accomplish this distance, my previous cycling record had been 94 miles in one day.......6 more miles would be easy wouldn't it ?

I should also note now that my earlier research had suggested an alternative cycle route to get to my bed and breakfast destination of Lybster adding around 5 hours cycling to the journey......and whilst I didn't think to investigate this more closely the 100 mile target (still around 9 hours of cycling...) seemed like the route to take / the challenge to take on.

As I managed to add miles to my days cycle I also managed to find opportunities to stock up on the essential fuel to keep me going for the 100 mile target for the day; I was soon to become an expert at the meal deals available at Coop and other smaller supermarket stores. The classic sandwich / crisps or sweet snack and IrnBru combo first started at about mile 15, and a Lidl at Tain (mile 37) added donuts x 2, white chocolate cookies x 2 and a little more food for my dinner at the B & B.

This blog (in fact blog series) might need to come with a food warning. Each days cycling would require around 4000 calories to be consumed, and this challenge was one I was more than willing to accept. Not that it quite works like this, but its almost an opportunity to eat whatever you want!

Lidl was also the location of a slight Strava error......I accidentally ended my Strava journey on the phone (or maybe paused it....) and this led to two outcomes. Firstly Jan and my parents lost my Strava updates for around 7 miles or so (the time it took to realise what I had done, minor panic caused to those following me live!!!) and almost as importantly it meant I managed to miss around 7 miles of mileage counting.....important for the overall journey, and for the 100 mile target for the day.

I helped ease this level of frustration by eating the first of the donuts (pink icing, delicious) and took in the views close to the Dornoch Firth. Into the mid 40's in terms of miles completed the donut allowed me to reset mentally (and a little physically too) but I was already loving the cycle, the countryside, the cycle routes and even the weather (dry, sunny but not too hot) and as I continued on the route I was soon heading through the village of Dornoch and on towards Loch Fleet.

50 miles (half way - whoop whoop!) I dropped down onto the road alongside Loch Fleet and encountered my first group of campervans parked up. Even on relatively quiet roads so far I had been overtaken or passed by a few camper vans probably taking in the NC500 (North Coast 500) route which takes in 500 miles of northern Scotland and I knew is incredibly popular with motor bikers, camper vans and fellow cyclists.

A small collection of camper vans were parked up and their occupants for the most part were heading over towards a small derelict castle. Whilst the castle was nice what I saw next was so lovely I stopped and video called Jan - I simply had to share the moment, halfway through the first full day of the cycle.

In front of me relaxing in the sunshine on the sand banks exposed by low tide within the Loch were in excess of 50 seals - after the owl from the previous evening the bar was raised to be in the scale of Spring Watch. Not quite close enough to be fully appreciated over a video call it was amazing to share the moment, talk to Jan and reassure myself / Jan that I was ok. Minor Strava incident aside she had been following my gentle cycling up towards John O'Groats.

As I headed further round the Loch I reached my first road sign mentioning John O'Groats.... I was around 53 miles completed for the day, the sign informed me that I had a further 76 miles to reach the start of my ride home, John O'Groats. I soon cycled through Golspie, my end destination for the following day and even saw the hotel / pub I was going to stay at.

The next 20 or so miles went well; stops for food, an abundance of countryside to take in (Scotland is beautiful!!!) and lots of water consumed to ensure I remained hydrated. Whilst I was starting to feel a little tired I knew I had at least another 20 miles to go before I could rest up for the night.

As I passed through the village of Helmsdale ( had I entered Middle Earth ?) I met a two mile climb out of the village.....and I soon found myself off the bike pushing Red up this hill. I'd probably got close to 80 miles in at this point of the day, but the combination of distance on the day and the distance ahead of me made the decision to push Red an easy one. The actual act of pushing Red uphill was a little harder, but not as hard as the ride might have been.

Once up at the top I headed downhill back on the bike before meeting a second steeper hill and a second walk with the bike. Even though I was lacking a little energy at this point my brain was considering how I might manage my energy levels and physical capacity for the next 550 miles I had planned to ride over the next few days. More on this later.

Second hill climbed / walked / bike pushed I got back on and rode on towards my stop, and whilst the day had taken longer on the bike than I had hoped, and the two hills around the 80 mile mark were quite disgusting in terms of their steepness I did make it into the driveway of the Acarsaid B & B, to be met by James who runs the business with his wife Kirsty.

I was exhausted. Strava couldn't confirm the exact length of the ride but it must have been close to 100 miles. My host James did confirm that the hills I had encountered were a struggle in his car......and as I put my bike in the garage for the night and was shown my room (which was incredible) I settled myself in for the night with a shower, dinner courtesy of Coop and Lidl and a moment or two to recover and consider what to do the following day.

(* it turns out that google suggesting a five hour detour to get to Lybster is designed to ensure cyclists don't try and climb these hills)

(** I had no intention to cycle these two hills the following day, a quick google allowed me to consider a 50 mile cycle to John O'Groats and back down to Wick to then get a train to Golspie)

(*** Scotland on day two of the adventure was beautiful. Even in my exhausted state I reflected on the stunning countryside I had cycled through, even the hills were beautiful to look at, the combination of the sea / lochs / firths and everything else was far better than I could had imagined)

(**** I slept very, very well......)

Stats for the day - approximately 50 seals seen, 1 donut eaten and sandwiches / crisps / flapjack etc, around 99 miles cycled and over 5122 feet / 1561 metres climbed......

To be continued......