Straight after work we drove over to the west coast to meet Matt and Emma, we found them in a little pub with locals playing funny instruments. We had a few beers and headed for our respective vehicles for sleep as the next morning was a fairly early start.
Thursday Barra 16.4km and 300m of ascent
Up at the crack of dawn (lucky Dawn!), packed our bags up with the bits we used the previous night and then cycled down to the ferry terminal for our sailing to Barra. We got there no worries and bought our tickets – a whole massive whopping £25 each later we have in our possessions tickets for every ferry we need for the long weekend, incrediblycheap .
We all boarded the first ferry, this was to be the longest of all of them, 6 hours as it stopped at Col and Tirree on route. It was not a bad crossing until we got out of the channel and hit open waters – at this point it got choppy and poor Emma did not feel too good, she wasn’t happy with having cameras pointed at her when she was green in the face
6 hours later as planned, we arrive on the Western Isles. First thing is first – to find some food (important to me!), we find a Co-op and stock up, we only have a short ride today to get around Barra and to the northern ferry point to cross over to Eriskay. We start to go surprisingly fast
and find that we can make the last ferry, Barra was a pretty island, small but nicely formed (like me…..). We get to the ferry terminal in good time and have no worries getting on the ferry. This is a short 45 minute crossing over to Eriskay.
On arriving it is an uphill (we found this is always the way out of ferry terminals) and head up up through Eriskay, another small island. It was getting late and our eyes were pealed for places to sleep that night, there was a distinct lack of flat ground, but eventually we managed to find a spot that would do us just fine.
We put up our tents, had a little wash and cracked open some wine we had lugged with us watching the sun go down. We all felt fine, it had been an easy day – but we all felt good about the bikes and the ride.
Friday 14th May – South Uist, Benbecula, North Uist (Lara’s Birthday!!)
75.8km, 455m ascent
Lara woke up to our tent having been decorated by Matt and Emma with balloons, it was after all her birthday! Poor thing always seems to be cycle touring on her birthday, last year we where in Sardinia. We packed up and was on our way by 9am.
Lara with her Birthday bike! We crossed over the causeway and onto South Uist. As far as all the islands we went through, this one was the least impressive. Mainly because it is the biggest and the road goes straight up the middle of it and all the pretty bits were a 10km detour. We had a long way yo go that day so no detours were allowed!
South Uist came and went pretty quickly, it had a good road surface and pleasant riding. Just re-read what I wrote, god you know you are sad when you comment on your blog on the state of road surfaces!
Next up was Benbecula. The day was turning into a lovely day, the sun strong and hot and some lovely beaches past on route. We sat and found another Co-op (only supermarkets on the western Isles) and had some lunch. From here, we hit a strong head wind, and the going got harder.
We knuckled down in silence and got going, after about 70km we found a shop which we decided we needed ice creams. After inhaling ice creams we turned East and had a great tail wind to our final destination that day – Loch Maddy. We managed to find a great spot to camp right next to a pub, being Lara’s birthday it was rude not to go in and celebrate
We staggered out at silly o’clock to our tents and all fell asleep very promptly
Saturday 15th May – Skye
88.7km, 1164m ascent
With a horrible early start and a pounding headache ( I blame Lara, it was her birthday after all) we got on the ferry to Skye. An hour and a half later we arrived at Uig. This on paper was to be the hardest day, and it was.
Looking back at our boat leaving Uig. It was all uphill into a strong head wind. This head wind was unfortunately going to be a strong feature in the days riding. We got to Portree and found a cafe to have some early lunch and hide from what looked like a rain shower. Once refueled, we headed off again south, I was looking forward to this bit as we were going to ride past the Cuillins. What I was not aware of was that we were going to be riding in the the pissing rain with strong headwinds all the way!!!!!!
Matt and Emma with the start of the Cuillins and heavy rain! The rest of the day was spent battling up hills in rain with head winds. I suppose this is what should be expected from this part of the world and we should count ourselves lucky to have seen the sun the previous days!
As it got time to find camping spots, in true ‘our luck’ everything starts to get a little steeper with no flat spots to camp. Everyone is getting tired and grumpy. Unfortunately a huge gust of wind hit Lara and Matt and pushed them into the side of the road and resulted in both of them coming off. New leggings need ordering!
We eventually found a flat spot and had dinner in the tents as it was still pissing with rain, everyone knackered and asleep by 8pm.
Sunday 16th May – Mainland, Mallaig to Corran
85.5km, 1488m ascent
Another early start to get the ferry back to the main land, it was a bit of a mile stone as if something was to go wrong here at least a taxi back to our cars were possible. we stopped off in Mallaig for breakfast, the morning was lovely and sunny. we ate our bacon rolls in the sunshine outside, did some food shopping and set off. just as we set off the heavens opened and it pissed down on us again! Thankfully it only lasted an hour or so and the sun came back out. As far as scenery went this was the most impressive part of the tour, it was a little hilly but the views took the pain out of it.
Lara with Loch Eil and Ben Nevis behind it. Another longish day was spent in head winds to finish. We found another great campsite next to a pub! result, again we had a quick wash and headed into the pub to eat and re-hydrate.
Monday 17th May – Corran to Oban
58km, 921m ascent
In the morning we woke up and had about 100m to go to get to the ferry, our last crossing. I had another hangover and felt the need to refuel, we found an appropriate place and all was well after that.
From here home fever set in, it was heads down, pedal to the metal and horse on back to Oban. We didn’t stop much and decided it was best jsut to crack on, thus no pictures were taken.
We arrived back at Oban just after mid day and were all really happy. It was a great 5 days, Matt and Emma did brilliantly seeing it was an order of magnitude longer than anything they had done before on bikes and hats off to them. I think they may have the touring bug…….
The Blog of Dave Lara, Ellis and Freddy 