It was a very mild night and on the deserted silent dark roads cycling was a truly magical and unforgetable experience. If a car or lorry came passed, you could often hear them approaching for minutes before they would arrive. On the twisting coastal road you could sometimes see the lights miles ahead of you. But mostly I was the only human moving and other than the sound of the bike it was a silent world, punctuated rarely by an owl or the sound of the sea.
It only gets truly dark for a couple of hours this far north in summer. This was just as well as I only had minimal lighting and my feeble front light barely shone more than a few metres. This was most evident approaching Berriedale where the road descends 13% over 1.3km. In the dark with my speed creeping up and I started thinking 'I can't see where I'm going and I'm going to end up lying unconscious in a ditch and no one will find me'. Braking and going down slowly was the only sensible choice. This was followed by an equally steep and long climb that had me pushing the bike in places. This didn't do much for my average speed which was certainly not as good as it might otherwise of been during the daytime. By the time I reached Latheron the sky was beginning to brighten. At Latheron I turned on to the coastal A99 road towards Wick rather than continuing on the A9 to Thurso. Only about 34 miles to go.
