Our leg was fairly uneventful starting off in stunning scenery before heading into the industrial outskirts of Edinburgh then over the Forth Road bridge. The ride over the bridge was spectacular - we stopped off for some photos (need to get them off Wayne) and the amount the bridge shakes with the traffic is very impressive. I'm not sure how high up above the water the road deck is but the contents of my nasal passages took 14 seconds to hit the water so any one with a mathematical mind can work out the height I'm sure. Tony also had the worlds longest wee on the bridge so if the southern pier starts to corrode first you know why.
Upon getting back to the minibus and handing over to team B at the summit of a lengthy hill I had a number of missed calls and texts off my wife saying our dog was quite poorly. After a brief and emotional call Hugh was booked in for the vets for two hours time and in my heart I knew he wouldn't be there to greet me when I get home.
There was also another worry for the whole team - the bust was poorly sick with a huge hole in the exhaust so Colin had found a MAN service centre for it to be looked at. Teams A and D found a Frankie and Benny's which was doing two breakfasts for £10 so second serving of haggis of the trip was promptly scoffed with the dog constantly being in my mind. After stuffing our faces we went to the service centre to pick up the bus and were greeted by the sight below.
Seeing 18 tonnes of bus in the air was very, very impressive. The MAN guys were great and didn't charge for the repair and wanted to know everything about our trip so a big thank you to them.
Once back on the bus I went to my bunk to await the phone call from my wife. Hugh had aged in the past six months but he was 16 so it wasn't surprising he was slowing down but I was still hoping it would be something small wrong with him and he'd be there when I got home but it wasn't to be. At half twelve I got the call from Julie and she gently said 'he's gone' - I was gutted. Gutted that I hadn't been able to say goodbye, gutted I wasn't there with him at the end and gutted for Julie having to look after things on her own. After a few minutes of talking we said goodbye and I stayed in my bunk and had a good cry - to be perfectly honest I just wanted to be at home but I still had an appointment with the A9 that afternoon so I just had to get on with things (in hindsight it's probably been better being on the ride and Julie had it harder than me).
We again took over from team D on the A9 to ride to the outskirts of Aviemore. This was the worst bit of road on the trip so far - the scenery was stunning but the road was just so boring and the traffic heavy but the support van did a fantastic job of keeping the traffic off our backs to a certain extent.By this time we'd also realised that drivers were hooting their horns at us in support at us rather that in anger at us so we had stopped giving the drivers the finger. One section of dual carriageway on the A9 was down to one land and it was very narrow so we did about 3 miles with a huge queue of traffic behind us. Again we rode a bit further than scheduled but this did mean hot showers at McDonald hotel in Aviemore bus it was mildly amusing that the name on our pass said War Trade and not WaterAid. After a few beers we set off for the overnight stop at a truckstop just outside Alness.
The truckstop was supposed to have a bar, a restaurant and a hook up for the tour bus. When we arrived it was shut up - there was a woman in there but she wouldn't open the door so Sam phoned her and she said we should have been there at 7, they we shut and we couldn't have a hook up - what's happened to the legendary Scottish hospitality?
Luckily for the whole team Tim was meeting a mate at the truckstop so they went off to find somewhere else for the bus for the night. About half an hour later we got a call they'd found a campsite that would take us. What a campsite it was - if anyone wants a campsite up that way I can really recommend Black Rock camping and caravan site as its beautiful and has fantastic facilities.
Everyone decided they were going to go to the pub but I didn't feel like it so after a pot noodle it's off to bed.
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