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Spring Is Coming...
So I booked my bike in for its post-winter service. This is a bit of a misnomer - the bike has done practically no miles since September or October, so what I actualy wanted was to get it a good clean, and have a couple of problems that were bugging me last Summer fixed up properly. So now I have a new chain ring, new brake blocks, and a sparkly bike (and another lock - I'm planning on doing some commuting and probably parking in town, and all the advice seems to be to use two different types of lock).
Weather permitting, I'll do some pottering around over the next few weeks to try to get back into some kind of condition for a proper run or three in the summer.
That means time to plan (actually, time to daydream, but I'm trying to dignify myself here).
My ambition for this year is to do some form of cycling on the Hebrides. I'm meaning that to be some subset of Vatersay, Barra, South Uist, Benbecula, North Uist, Harris and Lewis. The other restriction is to do as much of this as possible by public transport.
For obvious reasons, ferries will be one of the limiting factors, and althought there are a good range of these they do put restrictions on what I can do.
ETA: Hmm... Having looked at the ferries, there's a route that takes me in and out to Oban, and lets me use Uist as a base for getting to Harris and potentially even Coll or Tiree. It also allows those who can't cycle as far to join in :)
The classic South-North route would be Castlebay on Barra to Stornoway on Lewis, which is 132 miles. That's a distance I could do, in theory, in 2 days, which wouldn't leave a lot of time for dotting around, so put it as three. It would mean taking a ferry from Oban (which is on the train line from Glasgow) to Barra, and then another from Stornoway to... where precisely? The Cal Mac ferry from Stornoway takes me to Ullapool, which is very lovely, but has no train service. It may have a bus to Inverness, which does have a railways station, but does it take bikes?
The alternative is to cycle only as far as Lochmaddie on Uist (about 60 miles) or Tarbert on Harris (about 90 miles), and then take the ferry to Uig on Skye, then cycle another 60 miles or so to Armadale, where I can get a ferry to Mallaig, which has a train station.
Total cycling distance would be about 120-150 miles, whichever way I do it. I'm a little wary of Skye -it has high mountains, and of Lewis, which could double for Mordor in bad weather. My next step is to start looking at ferry and train times, and at B&Bs. It feels like an easy four days, or a lest restful 3, or a head down and blast it 2, but I feel that in the islands, where I'm at the mercy of ferries, it might be best to call it 4 days and relax.
Hmm, off to look at ferry times and daydream, sorry, plan some more.
Weather permitting, I'll do some pottering around over the next few weeks to try to get back into some kind of condition for a proper run or three in the summer.
That means time to plan (actually, time to daydream, but I'm trying to dignify myself here).
My ambition for this year is to do some form of cycling on the Hebrides. I'm meaning that to be some subset of Vatersay, Barra, South Uist, Benbecula, North Uist, Harris and Lewis. The other restriction is to do as much of this as possible by public transport.
For obvious reasons, ferries will be one of the limiting factors, and althought there are a good range of these they do put restrictions on what I can do.
ETA: Hmm... Having looked at the ferries, there's a route that takes me in and out to Oban, and lets me use Uist as a base for getting to Harris and potentially even Coll or Tiree. It also allows those who can't cycle as far to join in :)
The classic South-North route would be Castlebay on Barra to Stornoway on Lewis, which is 132 miles. That's a distance I could do, in theory, in 2 days, which wouldn't leave a lot of time for dotting around, so put it as three. It would mean taking a ferry from Oban (which is on the train line from Glasgow) to Barra, and then another from Stornoway to... where precisely? The Cal Mac ferry from Stornoway takes me to Ullapool, which is very lovely, but has no train service. It may have a bus to Inverness, which does have a railways station, but does it take bikes?
The alternative is to cycle only as far as Lochmaddie on Uist (about 60 miles) or Tarbert on Harris (about 90 miles), and then take the ferry to Uig on Skye, then cycle another 60 miles or so to Armadale, where I can get a ferry to Mallaig, which has a train station.
Total cycling distance would be about 120-150 miles, whichever way I do it. I'm a little wary of Skye -it has high mountains, and of Lewis, which could double for Mordor in bad weather. My next step is to start looking at ferry and train times, and at B&Bs. It feels like an easy four days, or a lest restful 3, or a head down and blast it 2, but I feel that in the islands, where I'm at the mercy of ferries, it might be best to call it 4 days and relax.
Hmm, off to look at ferry times and daydream, sorry, plan some more.
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In fact, if you hold your elbows out to create a sail it's possible to break the speed limit whilst cycling with the wind on Lewis.
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There is currently very little mythical about my arse.
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How long are you envisaging the whole enterprise taking and you thinking long weekend timing or during the week?
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If you wanted to join in, you could come across on Friday night, we could have a curry and a whisky or two to get in training, then you could spend Sunday recuperating before heading back in the afternoon/stroke evening.
http://www.fionaoutdoors.co.uk/2010/09/fab-scottish-cycle-routes-the-5-ferries.html
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Useful thread here - http://www.cyclechat.net/threads/a835-ullapool-inverness.7264/
I have always fancied cycling the outer isles - my grandfather was from Stornoway, and I've never been.
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If you like black pudding or porridge it is the place to go and no mistake.
I vividly remember MLW and I falling in to conversation with a Gaelic speaking (former?) fisherman. Wandering the quayside utterly drunk he found MLW and I watching a seal in the harbour. “Fish eating bugger!” he cried, and then proceeded to regale us with tales of the “fish eating buggers” to be found in the Stornoway area. Seals, sea-gulls, other fishermen, foreigners (mainlanders I think, not non-Scots), the Captain of a nearby boat especially. He was talking far too quickly and drunkenly for my O grade Gaelic to keep up and I was getting only the swear words in English. Each anecdote was punctuated with a friendly punch of MLW’s arm, each one more vigorous than the last. I only noticed the punching when MLW overbalanced and we both nearly joined the seal in the harbour.
I also vividly remember driving up to the northern most end of the island. Stepping out of a car on a day which is hasn’t a cloud in the sky and the internal thermometer shows 28 degrees centigrade from the sun and discovering that it’s 7 degrees outside and blowing a gale is some experience. I was blown over and I had to crawl on my hands and knees to get back to the car.
The many posters protesting about the windfarm became deeply ironic after that.
The division between the utterly utterly flat Lewis and the hilly hills of Harris make one think really profound thoughts about geology.
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I used to think that fishermen had supernatural powers to absorb alcohol without harm, then realised that they just die sooner than us. Of course, if I was out in a fishing boat in all weathers, I'd probably want to die too.
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There was no way you could bury him or cremate him on dry land - he'd be a fire risk or more likely and explosive substance risk.
Better by far to have him go off out at sea.
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Sounds awesome!! Wish I could join!!
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Have you been stalking cycling forums, then? The bus they talk about that one from Ullapool to Inversneckie is out of business, but there's supposed to be a replacement...
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I went there on honeymoon.
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I remember sitting in a hot tub drinking a whisky watching the sun go down over the kyle of (mmummble).
Oban is on the short list for my home in the country post winning Euro Millions.
Along with Stromness, Ainwick and Braemar.
I will, of course have a home in Wiltshire but that is for logisical reasons.
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