Friday, October 21, 2016

Tour d'Ecosse Day 9 Gairloch to Shieldaig - Applecross Peninsula Sunday 10th July 2016

Tour d'Ecosse Day 9 Gairloch to Shieldaig and Applecross Peninsula 85km 1176m ascent
Cumulative: 762km 8362m ascent Ferries 9 Islands 13
View from Shieldaig to Loch Sheidaig
After a good breakfast, in the much nicer family kitchen of the B&B that actually has the nice view advertised, we head out. Just the warm up.4 lumps. Less ascent than yesterday. Easy peasy lemon squeezy. We won't be going over 150m, look the map says so.

A-hem.

Be warned, today is a picture heavy day. A very picture heavy day. I want to drink in the scenery forever.
Loch Maree 
Firstly a stop st the Spar as we leave Gairloch for food supplies for the day, we are good at being prepared especially on Sundays now, we are staying in a yurt tonight. Even in dreich drizzly clag the ride from Gairloch to Torridon is wild and spectacular.

Loch Maree
We reminisced about camping in Torridon for a few days on our honeymoon, how wild it was and still is. Spectacularly wild. How big the mountain was we tried to climb but got turned back by pea souper clag each day we tried. That will have been Beinn Eighe then.
Towards Kinlochewe
But I'm jumping ahead. The terrain this morning was not as bad as we had anticipated, just drizzle and midges to contend with as it was quite calm. Had to be quick taking pics! We came to signs for Beinn Eighe National Nature Reserve's Visitor Centre. Visitor Centre = Tea and Cake...right...must have, a given, a money making opportunity...but...it was a great visitor centre, staffed by a lovely bearded chap enthusiastic about his centre, the birds, scenery and topography/geology. We learnt about the Big 6. Ohh eck, that's rhinos and tigers isn't it? Phew, we're talking eagles and the like. This NNR was the first in Scotland, and protects an ancient pine forest plantation too. Webcams to watch the bird feeders, hides. The works. Free as well, a great resource. We took our time and enjoyed the displays. Um..no café. So unspoilt too as a result, a slurp of water and on we go to guaranteed facilities in Kinlochewe just up the road.

Except the Kinlochewe Hotel's bar doesn't open until midday. I'm not sure if that was an every day thing or a Sunday thing but it was 11-ish and now quite damp and chilly to loiter for service. I poked my head round the door and bravely asked if there was any chance of a coffee for none residents, given there is a bunkhouse there too, but no. Oh well, Kinlochewe Post Office is open and a group of friendly bikers, of the vroom vroom sort, were clustered at a bench outside with takeaway mugs of steaming hot beverages. They had exhausted the cafe/hotel/visitor centre options too. The Post Office in these parts are usually pretty entrepreneurial, hot drinks machine and very tasty home made tray bakes from the cheerful local teenager to take away to the bench and sit huddle under the brolly (another optimistic parasol) outside. Revived somewhat from hot drink, cake and chat with the bikers we set off up the second grind of the day.

Up to Torridon Pass
Loch Clair 
It has taken quite a bit of detective work to remember which loch is what. Strava times and maps have helped somewhat. On and up we go, less claggy than when we were starting from this pass to walk up Beinn Eighe all those years ago.
Beinn Eighe foothills 
Dropping down the other side, we recognise the terraced campsite on the outskirts of Torridon. On to the lake we go.
Upper Loch Torridon
When planning the holiday I really wanted to spend the night at the Torridon Hotel, Just go and look at the website and get a feel for the spectacular scenery and imposing architecture on their videos. However the lowest rate was £250 a night, and with dinner another £80 each. Not counting wine. It looks amazing though. Even if they had had a room at the cheapest rate when I was booking, we would feel a bit out of place. The sister Torridon Inn was a great compromise. £120 a night, can still eat in the restaurant. However I worked it we could not stay the night as the 15 day plan would not work if we were going to attempt Bealach na Ba tomorrow.

However we worked it being there for afternoon tea, which seemed a brilliant compromise, £20 each, as a delayed anniversary celebration, also didn't pass the number crunching as I had calculated we needed to be further on than Shieldaig tonight to make tomorrow achievable.

So we went to the Inn for lunch, it was great. We were pretty wet, it was smart, but wood and slate floor smart, walking boots at the door, plenty of people in damp clothing but we were the only cyclists. Heating on and surreally Andy Murray thrashing out Wimbledon 2016 in a heat wave somewhere the other side of the world, or it may as well have been! I had a delicious chick pea and bean cassoulet for £9. Very tasty, plenty delicious bread, warming and not too heavy for the afternoon of cycling to come but substantial enough to be my main meal today. So grateful to have some vegetables. Burger, pie, venison all superb cooking but not pretentious. I had read that the chef is the same for the Inn so win win, We had just the right amount of poshness without feeling uncomfortable. Our wet gloves steamed on the radiator and we staved off the chill that had been setting into the bones.
Torridon Hotel
Perhaps I should buy a lottery ticket or find a sugar daddy if I ever want to stay at the Torridon. Think a lottery ticket odds are infinitesimally more likely. Just one night... in the hotel, not with a sugar daddy ughhh! Now I want to stay at the Inn for a couple of nights, have the tasting menu one night, the pub menu another night and afternoon tea. Then I want to borrow a mountain bike, canoe on the loch and tramp the fells a bit. There is nearly a holiday in every location we have been to.
Rushy River
We regretfully leave before localish boy Andy Murray wins at Wimbledon, which hopefully is not a spoiler but we didn't find out the result for a day or so. We wend our way around to Shieldaig, we loved it, a row of traditional cottages and houses, pub, café and a fabulously stocked small shop open until 4 on a Sunday. We are off to our yurt so a small bottle of whisky was purchased and a couple of nibbles to complement our picnic dinner. Excellent. There was a short discussion about options. In theory we could miss out the Applecross peninsula, and go straight across to Loch Carron if we found somewhere to stay here. That had been the original plan but I stole a day on the Hebrides to make the loop of the Applecross peninsula possible. Steve was not as keen as me. We stuck to our guns though, it wasn't raining now and we were drying out nicely.
Taking a picture of...see below!
....Loch Shieldaig

Shores of Loch Shieldaig
This is the part of the day we had been building up in our heads for a while. Reports of the Applecross peninsula are of stunning wild scenery and sea views but my goodness you work to be rewarded with the huge vistas. The ups and downs from Shieldaig to Applecross are the equivalent ascent to Bealach na Ba itself, the highest road pass climb in the land at 650m. Most cyclists do the route the other way round but research said practically everyone thinks they're done and then get caught out by the brutal climbs, just long and steep enough to be very hard work, round to Shieldaig. Cottages and crofts dot the hillside, lots of space between neighbours.
Loch Torridon
Loch Torridon
After some explosive efforts, and passing a couple of triumphant cyclists, congratulating them as they have done Bealach and are still going, we get the lump of the day at Ardheslaig as our finale.
Ardheslaig chuffing hill, ramps up to 15%, done.
It doesn't look it...
but this chuffing lump has been going on forever and
kicks up to 15% at the top...cruelty at the end of the day!
Rewarded with spectacular views we are now on the last few miles downhill to find a settlement called Cuaig where our Cuaig Yurt was situated, like so many settlements we never saw a sign but did find the red roofed building housing Croft Wools weaving workshop. We knew it was shut Sunday/Monday and the owners' daughter was meeting us at the house. We proceeded to walk up and down the road a bit, no house to be seen. Of course we couldn't look up directions as no phone signal and I stupidly hadn't copied and pasted them when we did have signal. nothing in sight, no passing traffic, just views, and sheep. It was getting quite late, around 6pm. It felt so good to have got those hills under our belt before tomorrow.

I left my bike with Steve and tramped back up the hill and down a stone track and thankfully found the main house and was met by a cheerful Abi, we had found the right house, We chatted away and I returned to get Steve and bikes. Quite a rough walk back down the track with our bikes but well worth it. Abi led us over the croft land and machair to the yurt peeping it's red door in the bottom corner of the field. The midges were out, dry air but wet ground. Just look at our home for the night. Abi had filled the water carrier with safe stream water from their supply, offered us firewood for the fire pit, and showed us the toilet tent round the back. I am totally in love yet again. Really this is nicer than the Torridon. we can stay two weeks here for the price of one night in the Torridon. Value for money and total tranquillity. £25 a night. Extra £5 if you want duvets. Stunning value. Posh camping.
Cuaig Yurt
We had brought our sheet liners but the yurt had two z-beds, duvets, a raised floor and camping chairs.
Yurt lush
A raised camping gas stove and pots and pans, matches. Solar lights. We were self sufficient. so airy yet cosy and no midges inside as long as the door was kept closed.
Yurt mod cons
We are fenced in, presumably to keep the sheep at bay, and have our own gate and front lawn.
Our fire pit to keep midges at bay
We brewed up, having remembered to pick up tea bags, coffee and uht milk sachets from the BnB. This is the life. After our snack picnic we walked down to the sandy beach 5 minutes away through the stunning croft machair or wildflower meadow.
Croft machair

Ox eye daisies
After damp bracken wading we opened the gate to the shoreline, the tide is in.
Our beach 9.30pm

Yes I took my knitting on a cycling holiday. It's a "hap" or a working crofter's shawl pattern from a new book, the Book of Haps that I recently bought by the knitwear designer Kate Davies.
Wild knitting
My "Hebridean Hap" is the Shore Hap pattern and I carefully chose the yarn before we left to reflect the colours of the machair, sea, crags and skies in the Hebrides, Cycling and knitting are perfect partners. Knitting on a ferry is normal too isn't it?
My Hebriddean Hap
I will make two halves, join and knit into the triangle at the back and then the ends can tie in many ways and not get in the way when wearing as an extra layer in cooler climates.
I could stay here forever as long as I have midge repellent
Dig the cycling socks and grungy lightweight but perfect sandals, my only pair of footwear other than cycling shoes. One pair full length leggings to keep midges out and a bright easy to dry fleece that can be worn on the bike if necessary.

The frog looked at me as if to say " you are mad, nobody has ever brought their knitting here"  I did not want to go back, it's still nowhere near dark at 10.30. I am sorry but I am coming back here, definitely. I have to do a weaving or dying course. I have to swim in the sea, sit on the beach, barbecue, read, commune with nature and cycle to Applecross Inn to party. At some point it got dark for a couple of hours but we were toasty warm in our Gurt Lush Yurt. We have done well. That's five big days in a row. Tomorrow is the biggest yet.
What the ribbit is she doing on my beach?
Touring Tips in Scotland

1 Mix up your accommodation, cheapest is often the most memorable for all the right reasons.

2 Stash away a couple of sachets of coffee and milk from B&Bs for the self catering nights.

3 Take time out to visit the visitor centres and learn about your environment. Don't expect a café.


Tour d'Ecosse quick links:

Planning
Day 1 Isle of Arran and a little Mull of Kintyre
Day 2 Inner Hebrides: Isles of Islay and Jura
Day 3 Inner Hebrides: Isle of Jura-Tayvallich to Oban
Day 4 Oban to Outer Hebrides: Barra and Vatersay
Day 5 Outer Hebrides: Isles of Barra Eriskay South Uist Benbecula Grimsay North Uist Beneray and Harris
Day 6 Outer Hebrides: Isles of Harris and Lewis to Callanish Stones
Day 7 Outer Hebrides: Butt of Ness to Stornoway and Ullapool
Day 8 Ullapool to Gairloch
Day 9 Gairloch to Shieldaig - Applecross Peninsula
Day 10 Bealach na Bà from Applecross to Plockton
Day 11 Plockton to Inner Hebrides: Isle of Skye Armadale
Day 12 Inner Hebrides: Isle of Skye Armadale to Ardnamurchan
Day 13 Ardnamurchan to Inner Hebrides: Isle of Mull to Oban to Loch Melfort
Day 14 Loch Melfort to Tarbert, Loch Fyne
Day 15 Tarbert Loch Fyne to Ardrossan THE END!

Tuesday, October 11, 2016

Tour d'Ecosse Day 8 Ullapool to Gairloch Saturday 9th July 2016

Tour d'Ecosse Day 8 Ullapool to Gairloch 92km 1345m ascent
Cumulative: 677km 7186m ascent Ferries 9 Islands 13
I like Harris Gin too, served with a slice of grapefruit.
On your 28th wedding anniversary you go up lots of hills, eat some nice fruit cake and get very wet again after a dry start and finish with gin. Today's plan:
We can't believe our trip is half over already, although that's not to say it's downhill from now on. If anything we're more likely to have headwinds to cope with.

Today is our 28th wedding anniversary. Cue more slippery slopes downhill references, and "how many life sentences is that then?" Exactly four we decide, time for a 7 year itch! Well that was after I gave Steve my card with the gorgeous picture of Seilebost beach on Harris in the sun, and he twigged it must be our anniversary as my birthday is August sometime and we got married July sometime.

Another delicious breakfast, Waterside B&B certainly kept up it's superb impression with us. we had tasty Orkney smoked cheese, compote (which seems a competitive BnB thing with secret family recipes) to start and the oh so superb Stornoway Black Pudding as part of the inevitable "full Scottish" I rarely have the full fry up, I much prefer scrambled eggs and smoked salmon, or smoked haddock or kippers with lots of mushrooms. This is the bees knees champion of black pudding. we loved it. I think I may have had smoked salmon and scrambled eggs with mushrooms and black puddin'. I know I definitely had the latter! it wasn't all mixed together either.
Loch Broom towards Ullapool
We hauled our well fed bodies out of Ullapool on the main road alongside Loch Broom after absorbing the directions to the best coffee shop en route from our lovely landlord,  At the top of the loch was a chuffing hill, what a surprise! We carried on chuffing as we took a right onto a much quieter minor road and saw lots of 'slow down' signs for a sportive going in t'opposite direction. Oh yes, it's the normal world's weekend again.

The big hill after the main road wasn't as bad as we thought and we pulled over into a viewpoint, and admired the view of course, and probably ate  NAKD bar #31 and/or a banana #27 as was the norm by now.
Viewpoint after the climb up from Loch Broom. Quieter Gairloch road now. 
A nice dry bench!
It's positively sweltering this morning, we are only wearing arm warmers and gilet as extra layers with bare legs and it's dry. We descend, and as often seems the case, we can't believe how much ascent we have done and feel very sorry for all the sportive riders going the other way. We note the signs for Dundonnell and carefully ride all the way through the village and a couple of kilometres out the other side and as instructed, there was Maggie's coffee shop a little way past the village on the edge of Little Loch Broom.

It was a perfect stop. I think we had a toasted sandwich and home made soup then the fruit cake that hit the spot just perfectly. Lovely. The nice waitress enquired as to our route. She must have been a superb cyclist, apparently only one awful hill before Gairloch. One, she said...
Poolewe
There were five awful hills to Gairloch. We knew that really as we knew the stats, well over the 100m climbing per 10km that we class as a moderately uphill day. The rain set in and we were cold and wet by the time we reached Gairloch. The scenery was great though. We had to tour up and down a bit to find our BnB not at  the pretty end of town. It was OK, yes the pics on the website were accurate but a lot was missed out. Our room overlooked a garden of discarded junk, not the sea as you would presume. The owner and her family were nice enough, it was OK. But after a tough wet day it was just disappointing, Like being in someone's spare room with stuff stuffed in the wardrobe out of the way, and economy bottles of nearly finished shampoo. Sheets stinking of nasty fabric conditioner and slightly fusty. Not recommending this one!
Gairloch
Oh well, we showered, wrang out our kit, set the heater to high and went out to eat. Of course we hadn't factored in it being a Saturday, we hadn't booked. Back on the bikes and down the hill, we ended up on a nettley muddy track trying a short cut in our dry evening clothes. Turned away at the first suggestion and managed to beg our way to a table at The Shieling. Excellent Cullen Skink and steak saved the day, but served with just chips and onion rings. Please give us veg! Oh well, I fell in love with Harris gin served with grapefruit. That was fruit I think!
That is what you call a gin collection!
It was slightly drier as we puffed our way back up to the BnB and our room that was now doing impressions of a steamy hammam.

I'm so proud of Steve, we've had a tough few days with a few more to come and we are coping admirably, enjoying ourselves and appreciating Scotland's diversity in spite of the weather. Gairloch hasn't done it for us, but then again perhaps we didn't see the town at it's best. Most of the day was pretty good.
The chilly windswept palm trees in Gairloch
Touring Tips in Scotland

1 Do not believe the coffee shop assistant, however well meaning, as to how many hills you have to come until destination!

2 Arm warmers are your besties

3 After 28 years your husband still isn't going to remember your wedding anniversary!


Tour d'Ecosse quick links:

Planning
Day 1 Isle of Arran and a little Mull of Kintyre
Day 2 Inner Hebrides: Isles of Islay and Jura
Day 3 Inner Hebrides: Isle of Jura-Tayvallich to Oban
Day 4 Oban to Outer Hebrides: Barra and Vatersay
Day 5 Outer Hebrides: Isles of Barra Eriskay South Uist Benbecula Grimsay North Uist Beneray and Harris
Day 6 Outer Hebrides: Isles of Harris and Lewis to Callanish Stones
Day 7 Outer Hebrides: Butt of Ness to Stornoway and Ullapool
Day 8 Ullapool to Gairloch
Day 9 Gairloch to Shieldaig - Applecross Peninsula
Day 10 Bealach na Bà from Applecross to Plockton
Day 11 Plockton to Inner Hebrides: Isle of Skye Armadale
Day 12 Inner Hebrides: Isle of Skye Armadale to Ardnamurchan
Day 13 Ardnamurchan to Inner Hebrides: Isle of Mull to Oban to Loch Melfort
Day 14 Loch Melfort to Tarbert, Loch Fyne
Day 15 Tarbert Loch Fyne to Ardrossan THE END!

Sunday, October 02, 2016

Tour d'Ecosse Day 7 Butt of Ness to Stornoway and Ullapool Friday 8th July 2016

Tour d'Ecosse Day 7 Butt of Ness to Stornoway and Ullapool 96km 1100m ascent
Cumulative: 582km 5815m ascent Ferries 9 Islands 13
Butt of Ness Lighthouse
An early start again today to the northernmost tip of the Isle of Lewis, well early for us as we are not good at early starts. We had to be in Stornoway for 1pm for the only ferry at 2 so we started riding at 7.30am after tip toeing out of the lovely Gearrannan Blackhouse Village and Hostel. Just regular Oats So Simple instant oat pots and bananas for breakfast, still nowhere near as good as the package instant porridge but we were not carrying milk.

Today is surprisingly lumpy but rolling, so cheating lumps if you whizz down fast enough you can get up the other side without too much effort!  Wild moorland out to Butt of Ness, again no cafés. We were trying to find a coffee and second breakfast stop, but never mind there will be one in Ness.

Stiff westerly and gentle showers so the weather is so much better than last two days too.
The long and not windy (referring to bends not wind!)  road to Borvas and Ness
Borvas Church, I think!
Fabulous model building outside a house on the verge in Ness - long winters!
We made it to Ness around 10am.

Typically Scottish, no entry fee, no facilities, no café just great views and wonderful that it wasn't raining.

We couldn't stay long as we have that 2pm ferry to catch and quite a long ride to Stornoway.

So a few pics including the ubiquitous selfie above! Lots of wildlife and crashing waves.



Butt of Ness lighthouse



Departing view
Mark Beaumont launched the Hebriddean Way in March with 12 hours saddle time over two days. Our moving time was about 14 hours counting Vatersay on Tuesday night over 2 and a half days, in horrendous weather carrying panniers. It was too cold and wet to hang about! I don't think we did too badly.

Now we turn south and start our return journey to Ardrossan. first things first we have only 2 1/2 hours to get to Stornoway for the once a day ferry. Retracing our route back to Banvas before turning eastbound towards Stornoway. Nice to have the stiff westerly behind, and just the occasional shower. No café and probably just as well as it would have been impossible not to stop. We may not have made the ferry!
Peat Moors towards Stornoway
and on they go
and on and on!
With a lot of swooping we came into Stornoway. There were traffic lights, pedestrian crossings and a supermarket and a big boat tied up in harbour. To be honest I hope we didn't see the best bit of Stornoway as it seemed a bit sad.....but we didn't stop and explore so not a good judgement. We arrived exactly an hour before sailing, again a bigger boat so check in is earlier for sailings here. Ferry # 9!
Cal Mac Stornoway - Ullapool Ferry
A french lady's "rig" We had long convos about Brexit in this queue with several nationalities :(
Stornoway
Breakfast and lunch demolished on the ferry. An uneventful 2 1/2 hour crossing brought us to delightful Ullapool. We used the last section of our Cal Mac Hopscotch #8 tickets

Moored in Ullapool
Waterside B&B is 100m from the ferry ramp, I took this photo from the front door! We cannot recommend it highly enough. Superb location, delightful, modern yet characterful rooms overlooking the harbour and fabulous hosts, Fiona and Donnie. We were so lucky to snag a single night gap in high season. Stay here. Preferably for several days.
Our room at Waterside overlooking Ullapool harbour
Boat watching, again!
We went out for a walk around the town, I managed to dart into a gift shop and buy an anniversary card for tomorrow without Steve suspecting....it made me giggle. It was a stunning photo of Steilbost beach on Harris in sunshine, the opposite to how we had seen it! we would have loved to have done some sea kayaking.

We fancied curry and had a perfectly OK curry except mine was pretty cold and there was a long wait. We did talk to a party of bikers from Durham sat next to us who were doing the North Coast 500 in a 3 day weekend, they all obviously had prized "pass outs" They had engines on their bikes...and were lovely friendly guys. We were doing a smallish section of the route by coincidence.
11pm at night Ullapool in July Spot our bikes chained to the railings for the night.
Home to our lovely room and we had this view from our cosy bed.

Touring Tips in Scotland

1 Check ferry timetables carefully, especially for how long before a sailing you need to be there. Usually 10 minutes but big car ferries load bikes first and an hour may be required.

2 Phone B&Bs (don't just enquire online) and see if the best ones (who usually do a 2 night minimum stay because they are still solidly booked) have a 1 night gap when cycle touring.

3 Follow @CalMac_Updates on twitter and check religiously where possible. The ferry timetable/schedule and interruptions are frequent due to weather and mechanicals and really impact a time critical tour. we were so lucky to not have any problems.



Tour d'Ecosse quick links:

Planning
Day 1 Isle of Arran and a little Mull of Kintyre
Day 2 Inner Hebrides: Isles of Islay and Jura
Day 3 Inner Hebrides: Isle of Jura-Tayvallich to Oban
Day 4 Oban to Outer Hebrides: Barra and Vatersay
Day 5 Outer Hebrides: Isles of Barra Eriskay South Uist Benbecula Grimsay North Uist Beneray and Harris
Day 6 Outer Hebrides: Isles of Harris and Lewis to Callanish Stones
Day 7 Outer Hebrides: Butt of Ness to Stornoway and Ullapool
Day 8 Ullapool to Gairloch
Day 9 Gairloch to Shieldaig - Applecross Peninsula
Day 10 Bealach na Bà from Applecross to Plockton
Day 11 Plockton to Inner Hebrides: Isle of Skye Armadale
Day 12 Inner Hebrides: Isle of Skye Armadale to Ardnamurchan
Day 13 Ardnamurchan to Inner Hebrides: Isle of Mull to Oban to Loch Melfort
Day 14 Loch Melfort to Tarbert, Loch Fyne
Day 15 Tarbert Loch Fyne to Ardrossan THE END!