A bed, a bed, my kingdom for a bed

Those who know me will vouch for the fact that I am not the most organised (the memory problem again...). I spend most of my life managing to be vaguely organised thanks to the hard work of two women in my life, Marnie - my wife, and Tracey - my practice manager. If it weren't for them, who knows what a mess I would end up in.

So far, I haven't enlisted either of them in the organisation for the ride. That's how I ended up last Saturday reading an article saying that entries for the Etape Caledonia were up around the 3,000 mark and thinking...I should really get around to booking a hotel room...ooops....

For various reasons, including trying to prevent total bedlam on the Sunday morning, the organisers of the event stipulate that riders must sign on in Pitlochry the day before - the Saturday. As you can imagine, this leads to a huge demand for accommodation in what is a reasonably small, rural area.

It didn't take too many phone calls for me to realise the chances of a hotel room/ B&B or guest house bed were slim to none. I kept trying and ended up with the choice of a hotel room about 10 miles from the start or a bed in a backpackers hostel.

I have mentioned before that one of the main attractions of the EC is that it is run on closed roads. This is great for riding but not great for getting to the start by car in the morning (I had dismissed out of hand adding an extra 20 miles onto my route!). So I decided on a bed in the dormitory of the Backpackers Hostel, Pitlochry. They were very pleasant on the phone and promised me plenty of like minded cyclists to share with! I hope it is going to be 13 quid well spent! I also hope it is not too noisy, although I don't expect to sleep much anyway ;-)

Wish me luck,

Col.