Back to Edinburgh

We made it back Edinburgh but the last two days were the most stressful I think. The bus service from Ullapool to Inverness was great but we got totally soaked on the way to the camping site. Luckily the rain ceased before we pitched our tent.

On the following day we had beautiful sunshine and the train trip to Stirling was fine. But from Sterling to Edinburgh we could not board the train because it did not have enough bicycle space. After an hour wait we made it to the next train but some other bicyclist didn't. The advice is to avoid train connections where you cannot reserve bicycle space.

Now we have a huge amount of photographs and video clips to sort and edit. Best of the photos will go to my flickr page and there is a plan to edit a short video out of the video clips.

Almost done

Yesterday we reached Butt of Lewis. The stunning coastal cliffs and the sandy beach nearby were worth of the sweaty push against the wind. After camping between sand dunes we packed and started our last longer stretch.

In the evening we arrived to the outskirts of Stornoway. The remaining time we will checking local things. The area is quite busy because of Hebridean Celtic Festival. Such a difference to wild camping with nobody in sight.

Black houses and weavers

Today we visited Harris Tweed mill and couple different weavers. Between those two we spent good amount of time exploring the black house village and nearby coastal path.

Tomorrow we have a quite long ride ahead as we try to reach Butt of Lewis. In any case we need to be in Stornoway on Thursday evening as we have a B&B reservation there. Weather looks ok for Tue and Wed but we might get wet on Thu and Fri.

A day of no progress

Since very early morning it has been raining all day. We have rainproof clothing but we decided to stay still and rest. Basically everything is closed on Sundays on Harris and Lewis so we did not miss much. In the matter of fact weather forced us to follow local custom.

Exploring Lewis

We have spent almost half of our time reserved for the trip. The remaining time will be spent visiting various sides of Lewis.

So far we have been quite lucky with the weather and we have managed to pedal over 50km on several days. Harris and Lewis turned out to be much more hilly than Uist or Barra. There have been some long steep uphills and insanely fast downhills.

Mobile data coverage is sparse on the islands and quite often the connection is GPRS or nothing. Couple times we managed to use open wifi.

Next stop Harris

After a windy and rainy day on north Uist we stayed a night in b&b. Previous four nights were fine in our tent but having a chance to dry our gear was welcomed. Today after the ferry crossing we have good amount of biking to do on Harris and Lewis. The area ahead is also much more hilly so the hardest part of the trip is still ahead.

South Uist done

Today we were lucky with weather. Sunny and wind pushing us helped us to cover over 40km. Biking in shorts and t-shirt is much nicer than in rainproofs.

First progress report

We have been progressing fine and weather has been pretty good. Vatersay and Barracks were very beautiful with their sandy beaches. But south Uist is not bad either. Tomorrow we explore it more.

Finishing touches

I visited The Bike Station today and bought some second hand parts again. This time I came home with a bottle cage, a saddle and a plastic rock ring/chain guard. I was also looking for some extra fasteners for the front pannier but I did not find anything usable.

The bottle cage required some grinding with Dremel as the screws on Dora's current bike had too large caps. Simple job and now her bike has a bottle cage as well. The saddle was a little bit unplanned purchase but by accident I spotted softer and a tiny bit wider saddle for Dora. I guess it is women's model as it was uncomfortable for me but she preferred it. Unfortunately the chain guard did not fit but I paid three pounds for those three items so I wont complain.

Tonight we made 13km ride with fully laden panniers and this time I had the tent and front panniers. The bike starts to deserve its new name "the Mule". No more sudden turns. Otherwise it feels quite ok and actually the ride is more comfortable because of the extra weight.

Packing exercise, bungee cords and clothing

We decided to use the front panniers after all on my bike. A week or so ago I bought a simple front pannier rack. I am not totally happy with the way how I managed to attach it but I think it will do. After all, the items in the front bags will be more bulky than heavy. Today we packed our bikes to see if everything fits and at the moment it looks good. We try to have as light backpacks as possible and place everything heavy in the rear panniers.

Finding decent bungee cords turned out to be a bit more difficult than I first thought. The bungee cords are elastic cords with hooks at the ends and such cords are handy for securing tent on the top of the rack. I bough a set from an eBay seller but those cord were plain rubbish. They were elastic only on one direction and some of the hooks came of right away. I got a refund and headed to local B&Q store and bought a set of much stronger cords.

On Saturday we did 45-50km bike ride to the Edinburgh airport and then to Craigie's farm and finally back home via Cramond and Promenade. On the way to airport we visited Alpine bikes in Stockbridge as I managed to convince Dora that she should get bicycling shorts as well. We managed to find women's cycling shorts with separate over shorts so that should be fine now. Near South Gyle it then started to rain and I can tell my rainproof trousers were totally dry in the wardrobe...

Bicycle theft

On Saturday morning we went to the garage to install new front pannier rack to my bike. When the elevator door opened I saw right away that Dóra's bike was missing. It became painfully obvious that her bike was stolen. She took it quite badly and I was not happy either. After searching around we reported the theft to the police.

But we were not about to give up our plan to do the trip. On the same day we found a decent second hand bike with reasonable price. Luckily Dóra's bike did not have lights or pannier rack attached so we did not lose them. Unfortunately I had just put brand new Schwalbe Marathon tyres to her bike.

On Sunday we then made a 30km ride just to get used to the new bike and find the right adjustments. The new bike turned out to be quite nice after couple tweaks. We cycled to Craigie's farm and deli where we had some chocolade cake with ice cream. We even managed to get some sunshine on the way back along the Edinburgh Promenade. Life started to feel better again.

Yet another preparation ride

Today we did a bit longer bike ride. We wanted to check some new paths and look how the cycle path continue after Cramond harbour. Cycle paths near our flat were pretty busy as there was some kind of theme day going on. When we reached the harbour we spotted a nice footpath next to the river. Initially it looked good for bikes but we encountered several sets of stairs. Oh well, some bike carrying exercise then.

After tackling the path and stairs we headed towards Dalmeny estate and we biked through it towards South Queensferry. I think we originally wanted to go back to Crammond harbor but there wasn't really suitable path - dashing through someone's backyard did not sound like a good idea. The route was scenic and involved biking along the beach side next to a golf course.

At South Queensferry we had a pub lunch without beer and headed back along the cyclepath 76 or 1, I am not totally sure which one it was. When we got closer to Leith we made yet another turn and biked rest of the way back along the coastline between Crammond and Leith. This time the wind was blowing in our face but we have to take it as a preparation for Hebrides environment.

The total distance was around 44km with many stops. The route on the map is based on my mobile phone's GPS tracking application.


View Leith-South Queensferry-Leith in a larger map

Shopping spree

For the preparations we have a shared Google Documents file with list of items we want to have with us. It is much longer than the one on this page! I have ordered several items online and bought some from the local store for the bicycling trip. I think most of them are necessary but I hope I wont have to use some of them.

Preparations update

We have now booked train tickets with bicycle reservations. The routes are Edinburgh-Oban and Inverness-Edinburgh. The Ullapool-Inverness will be done by bus.

Physical preparation has been going on as well. We have made a test trip of 15km with loaded panniers and we did not encounter any serious issues. So, things look good but there are still plenty to do.

Fundraising update

I am happy to tell that Dora has raised £100 so far. Eleven donations have been made at the moment, a big thank you for everyone!

You can check the the progress on the fundraising page.

Pannier bags

Previously we did not have any pannier bags for our bikes. If we did shopping or similar we simply carried everything in our back packs. That is fine for short trips but biking several days with heavy trekking rucksacks would ruin our backs in no time.

Preparing bikes

Our bikes are pretty normal mountain bikes and we have used them for shopping trips and reasonably short trips, around 10 miles. But doing biking for several days with all the camping gear requires some preparations for the bikes.

Welcome

This is a blog about a bicycle trip across the Outer Hebrides. It will have updates about our planning, route, gear and other information as the trip becomes more concrete.