Author: tandm

You’ll always have a part of us – all the bits the midges bit off.

Day 12: Last day in Scotland.  Total miles: 484   (779 km)

Thoughts on leaving:

• Cycling in Scotland is totally amazing.
• Scottish water tastes fantastic.
• Scotland is stunningly beautiful.  Wild and so varied.
• In 12 days, it rained every day…a lot.  Also sleet.  Also hail.  In June.
• Midges are really annoying
• People are very friendly and 99% of vehicle drivers are cycle savvy.  The other 1% drive honking big lorries that nearly suck you underneath as they go by.  (FYI – every Tesco lorry was notably considerate).
• We’re really really really glad we didn’t camp.
• We would definitely come back!

There can be sun in Scotland!

Day 10:  Total 398 miles (640 km)

It was a full day with rain, sun, headwinds, a ferry trip from Dunoon to Gourock, west of Glasgow, and a zoom along the old Greenock and Ayrshire railway line to Paisley.  It was a bit sad to leave behind the Highlands and the long wide stretches of wilderness.  We’ve been told that we can open our window tonight without having to be on midge alert.   Two more days in Scotland.

Which was spectacular, notwithstanding scudding clouds, strong winds and some short sharp rain showers.   And now we’re in Dunoon, not far from the bonnie banks of Loch Lomond.

We decided to shed some equipment and send it home by post.   After hauling stuff up some steep hills you begin to appreciate that there’s much you can do without. So with dawning realization that the invitation for a weekend at Balmoral would not be forthcoming, out went the taffeta ball gown, the dinner jacket, Harris tweeds, and deer stalker.  We still seem to have twice as much stuff as everyone else we meet.   But Margaret has a well stocked first aid kit comprehensive enough for appendectomies, C-sections etc, and I carry enough bike supplies to build another complete bike should we need one.

As well as sheep, Scotland is well supplied with rhododendrons, which grow with wild abandon wherever you look.   Rhododendrons are native to the Himalayas.   So, with a climate similar to Mt Everest base camp (only with more rain), it’s easy to see why Scotland is a favoured habitat.

Day 8:   Total:  305 miles (491km)

The cycle from North Connel to Kilmichael Glassary was up and down all the way.  Both hills and weather!  Our cumulative elevation was 2300 feet.  It was actually our most taxing day physically but the pouring rain kept us moving.  We even had sleet at the top of one of the hills.   For the longer hills I got out my bike speakers that connect to the music on my phone.  Stan Rogers, Natalie McMaster, and a Charlie Parker jazz set!  What a difference it makes as we glance up to see that we still can’t see the top of the hill yet!  Tony can hear it too as long as he doesn’t get too far ahead.   Makes the tough bits a bit easier. Had to put a shower cap on it to keep it dry…ish.

Our bikes are in a dry shed…our hand washed clothes were taken to be tumble dried over night…and the evening has been spent planning out the rest of our route.

It was recommended that we don’t open our window tonight as ‘the midgies are bad!’ (almost affectionate name for midges).  As with all biting insects, you can almost hear their happy little shouts as Tony comes near.  His legs are covered in little red dots.

Tomorrow’s  forecast? Hmmm…cloudy with a chance of…yup…rain.   Still having a great time!

 

 

Day 7:  Total distance = 264 miles  (425 km)

We saw our shadows today.  In fact, we were in sunshine for about 30 minutes.   Apparently that hasn’t happened in Scotland since 1934.   Tomorrow promises the usual driving rain and wind.  Nice to have some certainty in life.

We’re just outside Oban.   Yesterday was a long day (though not as long as Theresa May’s, I suspect – ha ha) because we were on a forestry road for quite a while, which was slow going.   We were also attacked by Loch Ness monsters in the form of midges – swarms of small biting flies.

Today though we zoomed along NCR 78, which followed the disused Ballachulish railway line.  We like disused railway trails because they have gentle grades and no cars.

We’ve planned our nominal route using a combination of the National Cycle Network (NCN) routes, Royston Wood’s Safe Cycle Route (SCR) and cycle.travel – an excellent bike route planning web site.

I’ll use my phone as a Satnav, using the LocusMap Pro app.     This is a great app, with loads (too many?) features.    I have all the NCN and SCR routes stored in the app as GPX files, plus if we need, we can use cycle.travel while on the go to generate a good bike-friendly route.

We’re staying in B&Bs most of the time, and have booked the first and last few days of the trip, but left the route from west of Glasgow south open for now so that we can change routes easily if we want.

Tony

My bike is a Trek 520 (with a classic Brook’s B17 leather saddle added) and Margaret’s is a Specialized AWOL Elite. Both are designed for touring – stable with a long wheel base and built to take loads. The frames are steel, which is a bit heavier and not as stiff as aluminium, but doesn’t transmit road vibration as much.    Both have mechanical disk brakes and puncture resistant tyres.

Margaret had her bike modified to a 3-ring front chain set and a rear cassette with lower gearing.   We’re really happy with both bikes – very comfortable to ride.

Tony

 

Our current plan is to cycle from JOG to Chippenham in Wilts in 22 days, averaging 45 to 50 miles per day.    (The actual route is longer than shown on these Google maps.)   We’ll have a week’s break to attend a wedding, then will head from Chippenham to Lands End, taking a leisurely 8 to 10 days.    We’ll be keeping off main roads and using National Cycle Network (NCN) routes as much as we can, plus we have the Safe Route guide.

Here’s our approximate route from JOG to Chippenham.     We plan to take the inland route to Inverness, then Fort William and down to the Kintyre peninsula, then a ferry to west of Glasgow and down the west coast through Ayr and Stranraer (NCN 7).    From there it’s to Carlisle from where we hope to pick up NCN 68, the Pennine Cycle Way (which we understand is challenging, but worth it).   Then down through the Yorkshire Dales and on through the Peak District.    Then picking up NCN 55 and NCN 45 to come through Stoke-on-Trent, Worcester, Gloucester, Tewkesbury and the Cotswolds down to Chippenham.

Our route from Chippenham goes past Bath to Wells and Glastonbury, then Taunton to pick up NCN 3.    We take a detour to Polzeath for a day or so, and then take NCN 32 to rejoin NCN 3, which will take us to Truro, St Ives, Penzance and Lands End.