davidtreth
New Member
What might turn out to be the first part of my JOGLE is nearly complete. I ended up splitting it because it is my first multi-day cycle tour, and lessons learned can be applied to the second half or other future trips.
You can see the photos at http://www.srcf.ucam.org/~dlrt2/phot...r_scotland_09/ and http://www.srcf.ucam.org/~dlrt2/phot..._09/panoramas/
Getting there was an adventure in itself, next time I'd make fewer changes of train but I particularly wanted to stop in Edinburgh on the way up. Next time I'd probably go by train all the way to Inverness on the first day, break the journey there and head on to JoG the next day.
We got to Thurso late due to a delayed train into Inverness causing us to wait 3 hours for the next one. This meant we were still on the road after 10:30pm, and missed out on Dunnet Head in the interests of getting back in time for a takeaway.
Day 2 to Altnaharra, via Bettyhill was the only rain we had on the trip, it was fairly intermittent though, but a strong headwind along the coast made that section fairly tiring.
Day 3 to Carbisdale Castle was a short easy day, we got there by mid afternoon
Day 4 to Carrbridge was a long one, got lost going into Inverness and went back out to the A9/A82 roundabout, and had to cross busy dual carriageways and had trouble getting back to the route, once we did we went on a combination of A9/Old A9 to Carrbridge.
Day 5 to Braemar was very hilly, including big climbs at Bridge of Brown and Lecht and another one afterwards, we took a longish detour nearly via Ballater to avoid one last climb.
Towards the end of that day a couple of my spokes broke.
Day 6 to Perth, the Glenshee summit was easy compared with the Lecht. It was a bit scary though worrying the wheel might fail at any time
Day 7 - I took the train from Perth to Edinburgh because they didn't have the right wheel for my old bike in Perth. Thanks to the guys at Bike Station in Edinburgh.
Day 8 to Kirk Yetholm was fairly uneventful, taking the Dalkeith road out of Edinburgh and then the A68.
Final day to Newcastle began by actually crossing the border heading north into England, it was fairly uneventful.
The main lesson learned was to get the bike properly checked over before heading out on a tour. Also I'm tempted to invest in the ETA's Cycle Rescue scheme next time.
You can see the photos at http://www.srcf.ucam.org/~dlrt2/phot...r_scotland_09/ and http://www.srcf.ucam.org/~dlrt2/phot..._09/panoramas/
Getting there was an adventure in itself, next time I'd make fewer changes of train but I particularly wanted to stop in Edinburgh on the way up. Next time I'd probably go by train all the way to Inverness on the first day, break the journey there and head on to JoG the next day.
We got to Thurso late due to a delayed train into Inverness causing us to wait 3 hours for the next one. This meant we were still on the road after 10:30pm, and missed out on Dunnet Head in the interests of getting back in time for a takeaway.
Day 2 to Altnaharra, via Bettyhill was the only rain we had on the trip, it was fairly intermittent though, but a strong headwind along the coast made that section fairly tiring.
Day 3 to Carbisdale Castle was a short easy day, we got there by mid afternoon
Day 4 to Carrbridge was a long one, got lost going into Inverness and went back out to the A9/A82 roundabout, and had to cross busy dual carriageways and had trouble getting back to the route, once we did we went on a combination of A9/Old A9 to Carrbridge.
Day 5 to Braemar was very hilly, including big climbs at Bridge of Brown and Lecht and another one afterwards, we took a longish detour nearly via Ballater to avoid one last climb.
Towards the end of that day a couple of my spokes broke.
Day 6 to Perth, the Glenshee summit was easy compared with the Lecht. It was a bit scary though worrying the wheel might fail at any time
Day 7 - I took the train from Perth to Edinburgh because they didn't have the right wheel for my old bike in Perth. Thanks to the guys at Bike Station in Edinburgh.
Day 8 to Kirk Yetholm was fairly uneventful, taking the Dalkeith road out of Edinburgh and then the A68.
Final day to Newcastle began by actually crossing the border heading north into England, it was fairly uneventful.
The main lesson learned was to get the bike properly checked over before heading out on a tour. Also I'm tempted to invest in the ETA's Cycle Rescue scheme next time.
