Day 31 - Dalwhinnie to Feshie

Archie beat me too it due to mince vodaphone connections.
A knackered late start again on the road bike on the dreadful A9 in minging rain and worse wind. Happy days. It improved after Drumochter when I snuck up on a John O, Groats to Lands Ender, also on a bike, but with full panniers. In the racket of the wind, rain and constant traffic he didn’t hear me and I gratefully stole about a mile and a half of draughting behind him until we hit the relative safety of the dual carriageway. I knew since he was unaware of me there was no easy way past so I shouted “Hello!” rather than just whiz past. Poor man filled his pants! He leapt out the saddle, both his feet unclipped and he did a major high speed wobble across the road with the fright!! Somehow he just held it together and we enjoyed the next 6 miles of chit chat exchanges of hopes for our different adventures. I never caught his name, (The Birmingham Biker) but good luck to you on you travels.
At the Trinafour turn off a brief feed and change of bike to the mountain variety then it was north through the Giack Pass with a now tail wind and the rain abated. Quickly covered ground to Loch Giack , and whizzed up & down steep An Dun then some lovely single track biking to the other end of the loch to climb a near vertical wall of grass to the rather disappointing tiny cairn of A’Chaornich. Another good run on the bike down the pass and a surprise to find Archie pointing his 300mm (lens) at me from Giack Lodge. Great, company for the last 2 hills. Sadly our friends Davie & Cherie McGibbon were not at home in the keepers cottage when we passed but thank you for allowing us to take our entourage of vehicles in & out the estate.( Can you freeze & post the lasagne Cherie?) Archie and I set off up Meallach Mhor and Carn Dearg Mor as the rain & thick mist set in again and we got a hearty soaking in “warm” water from the east or was it north west? mmm? Anyway it was good to be on very familiar hills with a friend to blether to and we made very short work of them descending to a high hill track in Feshie Estate to meet Davy Duncan & Brenda, having borrowed Alan Smiths jeep, and that is where I will start tomorrows trot south the Blair Atholl.
The evening was spent enjoying the sorely missed Suie Hotel bar in Kincraig for a few drinks and a magic dinner. Great beer, great food and a fine host, Mike Welding. Try it if you are ever passing folks, you won’t be disappointed.
It was off to Nethy Bridge next to see my ever patient physio Alison Robb – a woman with dangerous fingers!! “Oh God!” is not something she has said to me before in the many previous times I have visited with my varied aches and pains, but the sight of my angry red leg was enough on this occasion. After much rubbing, “ouching” and zapping, I was taped up like Blue Peter Christmas surprise and sent home to ice ice ice!!! Alison gave me the honest view that a rest day may well be required very soon to give the leg a chance, before it does not work at all, and possibly occasionally in the future too. It will be better to skip a day or 2 rather than not finish the route but I will do tomorrow as it as relatively short, and assess how the strapping does for the leg.