Saturday 25 June – Newtonmore to Tomatin

At breakfast we speak to an older lady who's been on the Trans-Siberian Railway. We tell her that in 2012 we travelled from Bristol to Singapore by train. We discover that she visited Urumqi in Northern China, as we did. We tell her about the lovely Francis, the Chinese student we met there, who showed us around, and the Chinese school children who rushed up to us in the museum, wanting our autographs – the David and Victoria Beckham experience.

We pack up our panniers and are off again. Our host offered packed lunches, which will save us stopping at the little supermarket. It has obviously rained overnight, but is dry at the moment, and sunshine is trying to break through. After a few minutes though I have to stop to put on my coat – it's quite chilly,

We're in the heart of the highlands now, and it's absolutely beautiful, When off the main roads, there's a peace and majesty about the mountains surrounding us. There are splashes of bright yellow gorse everywhere, gurgling mountain streams, lochs and rivers, and sometimes, big clusters of purple and mauve lupins, and occasionally hollyhocks. Now and again there are clumps of purple heather. Of everywhere we've been on this trip, I think the highlands have impressed us the most.

We stop at one particular loch to take photos. There is a little stone-built monument, with a wreath of long-dead flowers beside it. The plaque gives the names of 3 young men who died in the lake in 1981. A reminder that this scenery is dangerous as well as beautiful.

Our host tells that we would be able to get a coffee in Kingcraig, which is the perfect coffee distance of 9 miles, but it will take us a couple of miles off-route. We decide to press on to Aviemore, a distance of 16 miles. Surprisingly, although we're in the Highlands, it's not difficult riding today. There are hills, but they aren't steep. The wind is behind us and we're soon in Aviemore.

This is adventure sports country. We see signs for white water rafting, hill walking, and canyoning (some sort of caving?). In this small town there are gift shops for tourists, and shops selling sports gear and outdoor clothing (as well as other clothes shops). There's a post office, a fish and chip shop, a convenience store, a bike shop, several charity shops – and 3 or 4 coffee shops.

We have our cappuccino and green tea and read our kindles for a while. We decide to phone tonight's guest house as Reg is worried that there won't be anywhere nearby to have food. Sure enough, our hostess confirms that the nearest pub is several miles away.

“I can't cook tonight, I'm sorry. I cook every other night of the week. Saturday's my day off.” She sounds very defensive.

“That's fine,” I say. “We aren't expecting you to cook. We can have something to eat along the way.”

We aren't really ready for food yet, but unless the next town, Carrbridge, has all day food, they may have finished serving by the time we arrive – Carrbridge is an hour and a half's cycling away. We decide to have fish and chips in Aviemore, and the freshly cooked haddock is delicious. While we are eating, the rain buckets down – but the skies are clear again by the time we are ready to move on again.

Reg has altered the route slightly today, slicing about 3 miles off its length. Our destination is about 16 miles away. There is some climbing, but a long downhill stretch of 3 – 4 miles to Tomatin, where we are staying.

A few miles on from Aviemore we meet 2 young Frenchmen who are touring on recumbent bikes -the ones where your legs stretch out in front of you and you're very low to the ground. They've come from St Malo, arrived in Portsmouth, cycled to Manchester, caught the train to Edinburgh, and are cycling to Inverness then Glasgow, where they will catch the ferry to Ireland and tour around Ireland. After that it'll be Ireland to Wales and South West England, and then the ferry from Plymouth back to Roscoff. Very impressive, since they are camping and have all their gear with them. They are (unusually) doing about the same mileage as us – approximately 40 miles a day.

We say our goodbyes, and they go on ahead, but we catch them up later and overtake them; then later they catch up with us while we are having a cup of tea by the side of the cycle track.

We love the 3 or 4 miles of downhill riding before we get to our guest house! The final leg of our journey is surprisingly on a private road which goes through a distillery!

Our room is comfortable but our hostess warns us to keep our windows closed as they've had trouble with midges, especially in damp weather. Ah! Our first experience of Scotland's famous midges!

There's a bath – we enjoy a relaxing soak, then later eat a picnic tea. It's great not to have to go out again to get something to eat,