Day 5, 42 wet and windy miles from Newtonmore to Pitlockry

September 5, 2006. This was our first really wet day. We left Newtonmore in light drizzle at 11 degrees to climb the 1513 foot Drummochter Pass into a SW wind. After a few hours in heavy rain and persistent wind with the temperature dropping to 8 degrees, those of us without rain booties had less than warm feet. Much of the ride was on the not terribly well maintained cycle path that follows the old highway beside the A9 and the rail lines. We stopped for coffee at the New Inn in Dalwhinney and reluctantly passed on the opportinity to visit "Scotland's highest distillery" because it was obvious that we were going to be making poor time in these conditions. Although we could not enjoy the distant views of the mountains and heather, we were impressed with the variety of road kill - several pheasants, hares, and frogs, a mink and a sheep. There were many grand houses as we got farther south and at Blair Athol we marvelled at the 4-miles of 5-foot stone wall along the road on one side of Blair Castle. After 5 hours and 42 miles of this, we arrived at the very pretty town of Pitlochry near 2 pm in time to get our bikes tuned up by the very competent Kevin at the Escape Route cycle shop and repaired to the Moulin Inn (est. 1695) for their real ale brewed on the premises (we all had the 5.2 percent "The Remediator") and excellent lunch (our selections included venison platter, steak and ale pie, game pudding, scotchman's hat - a large Yorkshire pudding with meat and mushroom filling).