midges and deet anecdote, highland report

TerryJ

just got back from doing a circle from Huntly to inverness, bettyhill,
jog, inverness, back.

Weather was great, except for 1/2 a day of rain at thurso to jog.Wind
strangely managed to turn with us so that we had only 1/2 a day without
headwind.

I will not be doing inverness to bettyhill into the wind with tent etc
again in one go.

The midges are out.They have always liked to bite me and I react well.
i wore 100%deet on exposed parts and hair from set off to shower and had
no problem with bites until one evening in bettyhill I had a shower then
went to the top of the rise behind the pub to get a phone signal with
no deet on. In 15mins I got 30plus bites all over my scalp. They seemed
especially to like the hair and only a few bit my face and neck.

Another man i met later in helmsdale had hundreds if little bites all
over especially his legs.His repellant was french and the contents not
available for conversation.

I was really pleased with the 100% deet.I had no problem with it melting
my clothes or gear, although I may have been a little bit careful about
avoiding obvious contact with plastics.Pertex sleeping bag, Event fabric
anorac, nylon socks and tights seem ok.

By the way, if a highlander tells you the road ahead is fairly flat he
means it's not like cockbridge to tomintoul, but it all seemed pretty
hilly to me, and I normally ride in the white peak .

The A9 jog to inverness is fine to ride, at least at this time of
year.Some parts require reasonably careful driving , but Compared with
Derbyshire roads I would say it is not bad.
The drivers were outstandingly careful around cyclists up there.In 6
days we had only one driver who buzzed us at speed peeping and waving at
us to get out of his way and into the gutter.He was so exceptional I
wondered whether he might be english.

TerryJ

Just zis Guy, you know?

On Sun, 08 Jun 2008 14:18:36 +0100, TerryJ <jonestl@breathe.com>
said in <g2gm7l$qdi$1@registered.motzarella.org>:

>Weather was great, except for 1/2 a day of rain at thurso to jog.Wind
>strangely managed to turn with us so that we had only 1/2 a day without
>headwind.

Strange? What's strange about an againsterly wind? I thought that
was normal.

Guy
--
May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after posting.
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk

85% of helmet statistics are made up, 69% of them at CHS, Puget Sound

TerryJ

>> strangely managed to turn with us so that we had only 1/2 a day without
>> headwind.
>
> Strange? What's strange about an againsterly wind? I thought that
> was normal.
>
> Guy
true, i do take some persuading that the wind is for us.
When i checked the heights of the hills we climbed i found my estimates
to be 30%exaggerated most of the time.Having a tent and bag on the back
does that to you.

Peter Clinch

TerryJ wrote:
> just got back from doing a circle from Huntly to inverness, bettyhill,
> jog, inverness, back.

See http://www.personal.dundee.ac.uk/~p.../tourdunord.htm for our
foray into that neck of the woods 4 years ago.

> Weather was great, except for 1/2 a day of rain at thurso to jog.Wind
> strangely managed to turn with us so that we had only 1/2 a day without
> headwind.

We found we had the remarkable re-orienting headwind too, though at
least the really sharp turns (such as onto the Black Isle) meant we had
it behind us some of the time. It was windy enough that midges were a
complete non-issue from start to finish.

> I will not be doing inverness to bettyhill into the wind with tent etc
> again in one go.

Fair enough, we did from Nairn to Tongue in one and that was a good
distance (about 60 miles IIRC) without wanting to string it out any further.

> The midges are out.They have always liked to bite me and I react well.
> i wore 100%deet on exposed parts and hair from set off to shower and had
> no problem with bites until one evening in bettyhill I had a shower then
> went to the top of the rise behind the pub to get a phone signal with
> no deet on. In 15mins I got 30plus bites all over my scalp. They seemed
> especially to like the hair and only a few bit my face and neck.

A midge hood is Your Friend. Easily available in Scotland for about £6.
Tracksters and long sleeve jerseys too, then you only need noxious
chemicals on your hands.

> I was really pleased with the 100% deet.I had no problem with it melting
> my clothes or gear, although I may have been a little bit careful about
> avoiding obvious contact with plastics.Pertex sleeping bag, Event fabric
> anorac, nylon socks and tights seem ok.

Roos suggetss that contact lens wearers want to be very careful about
washing hands between applying deet and emplacing/removing lenses.

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net p.j.clinch@dundee.ac.uk http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

Roos Eisma

Peter Clinch <p.j.clinch@dundee.ac.uk> writes:

>> I will not be doing inverness to bettyhill into the wind with tent etc
>> again in one go.

>Fair enough, we did from Nairn to Tongue in one and that was a good
>distance (about 60 miles IIRC) without wanting to string it out any further.

That was from Tain, and taking the scenic route past Ben Loyal rather thsn
the more direct one to bettyhill. Which is indeed on top of a hill even
though it is on the seaside...


Roos

TerryJ

Roos Eisma wrote:
> Peter Clinch <p.j.clinch@dundee.ac.uk> writes:
>
>>> I will not be doing inverness to bettyhill into the wind with tent etc
>>> again in one go.
>
>> Fair enough, we did from Nairn to Tongue in one and that was a good
>> distance (about 60 miles IIRC) without wanting to string it out any further.
>
> That was from Tain, and taking the scenic route past Ben Loyal rather thsn
> the more direct one to bettyhill. Which is indeed on top of a hill even
> though it is on the seaside...
>
>
> Roos
>
>
Has anyone done the A9jog to inverness and found it unpleasant?

The CTC advice leaflet still says 'avoid if at all possible' but we had
no problem at all.Until Dornoch the traffic was very light and well
behaved, most of the time there was a white line and side strip to use
and when there wasn't room for that the traffic had no problem getting
past after perhaps a small adjustment or hesitation.North of wick it was
dead quiet.It was like a Derbyshire B-road early on a Sunday .South of
that it was a bit busier but wide and no problem.
I understand that Perth to Inverness uses the old road almost all the
way and is fine also.
There seemed to be a stream of cyclists using the A9.It is a shorter
route,probably less climbing and pretty in its way .The opportunities to
bandb are more frequent.

The reason I am particularly interested is that the owners of a very
good guest house(Kindale) in Helmsdale were rather amazed that the ctc
is still giving this advice and I agree, but then I haven't cycled it in
july /august.
The ctc could make some advertising revenue, add to the approved
accommodation list and persuade some bandb's to get a bike shed.Should
this be proposed?

TerryJ

David Damerell

Quoting TerryJ <jonestl@breathe.com>:
>Has anyone done the A9jog to inverness and found it unpleasant?

We did Inverness->JOG, but we used NCN#1 between Inverness and Tore (a mix
of country roads and wee-smelling underpasses, say my notes) and had
accomodation in Dingwall, so we only really used the A9 from where the
A682 joins it at Arduillie. If I were doing it again today I think I'd
plan on the Cromarty ferry if possible. I remember it as being fine from
there on up, though.
--
David Damerell <damerell@chiark.greenend.org.uk> Kill the tomato!
Today is First Chedday, June - a public holiday.