The day started full of anticipation, a cocktail of nerve’s and anxiety mean’t the day couldn’t be ‘the normal’.

I finished work early and completed my final kit checks. I had added a few extra’s to the kit list that week and changed a few more, and I’m glad I had as they were to prove extremely useful later. The kit list squared I had repacked my kit for the third time before finally sitting back to relax with a large brew.

The balance was perfect, an even distribution of weight front to rear and side to side, the pack training had proven itself and the now the bike was ready to roll.

With all in order at work and home my mind was focussed on the task at hand, I said my goodbye’s and made my way to the station for the journey to Euston, with bike rack in tow! An on time service mean’t I arrived a head of schedule and so I enjoyed a longer gentle walk through the city to the terminal.

I received a phone call at 18:30 from Mark stating that David had suffered a puncture on the way home from work, and may be slightly delayed, I described my location and waited for their arrival. At 20:45 they arrived and we made our way to platform 15 for the sleeper to Inverness.

We had prebooked and reserved three of the six bike spaces on the train, but this didn’t seem to make any difference as following our immediate loading, several others arrived requiring additional non existent space. Evading that issue we located our seats and stowed our kit in the baggage rails, we too were ready to roll.

The train left on time and we had a comfortable journey to Inverness, the seats reclined slightly and plenty of sleep was gained. We were one coach away from the buffet car and enjoyed several refreshments that evening and the following morning.