The wind had been gradually building up when we reached Kylesku at the end of North Coast 500 Day 7. Then overnight, the wind had been blowing around the lodge rattling everything that wasn’t fastened down. So, at the start of North Coast 500 Day 8, we were seriously wondering whether it would be safe to cycle. It was going to be our longest day of cycling too.

Finally, we left Kylesku Lodges and headed down to Kylesku Bridge. We would begin the cycle ride and see how things went. Nicholl drove down just past the bridge in case we changed our minds and decided to give today a miss.

Kylesku Bridge crosses the channel between Loch a Chairn Bain and Loch Gleann Dubh.

While there was an extremely strong gust at one point, in the end, we felt confident enough to carry on.

So, we set off along the A894 towards Scourie.

At Scourie, we had hoped to stop for a coffee at a cafe attached to the village grocery shop. However, as had been our general misfortune so far on this tour, it was closed. With the wind blowing strong off Scourie Bay, we cycled on.

We cycled past Loch a Bhadaidh Daraich.

As we crossed over Laxford Bridge (a small and easy-to-miss bridge) over the River Laxford, it started to rain. Here, we joined the A838 and headed into the hills and onwards towards Durness.

We cycled past the bottom of Loch Laxford.

Further on we passed over Loch na Thull.

Then Loch Inchard.

As always, there was a fabulous view around every corner.

Cycling along the Kyle of Durness, it seemed appropriate that we would be fighting the wind and the rain up to the top of Scotland!

Now our journey changed direction. Having cycled north for the last few days, at Durness, we now turned east.

The lane rising out from Durness Beach provided us with a bit of a short sharp shock.

This took us to Smoo Cave. We decided to have lunch here. We also met up with Nicholl. We had found a Revolution Launderette.

Lunch was an outdoor affair from the Cheese ‘N’ Toasted van. Simple food but excellent!

Just around the corner was Smoo Cave itself.

The entrance is one of the largest in the UK. Uniquely in the UK, the front chamber was formed by sea action, while the inner chambers are freshwater passages.

Following lunch, our North Coast 500 Day 8 route turned south and cycled down the side of Loch Eriboll.

This was one of the toughest sections of cycling. For the next 7 miles the constant headwind, at seemingly gale force strength, meant we probably averaged about 5 mph down this stretch.

Then at the bottom of the loch, we were nearly blown off our bikes again!

Of course, cycling up the other side, with the wind now behind us, the cycling should have been easy.

Except, we were already tired out from tackling the headwind earlier.

Partway up the next hill, we took a break.

Then continued climbing the hill past Ard Neakie Lime Kilns.

There was one final long climb up to Moine Ho.

This was followed by a fantastic long downhill!

Finally, we reached Tongue Causeway.

Having crossed over the Kyle of Tongue we finished by cycling into Tongue. We were staying at Tigh-Nan-Ubhal Guest House.

At nearly 65 miles and over 5000 feet of climbing this would be the hardest cycling day of the tour. However, having overcome all the challenges of the day we were all finished tired but encouraged.

You can view our North Coast 500 Day 8 route from Kylesku to Durness and onto Tongue below:

Tomorrow we cycle to Melvich.