Robjh's wee tour of the Highlands

[Crackle]

Keep up next time will you ...

Sorry, I'm trying. Phones, power, WiFi, that sort of thing.

 

[Fab Foodie]

Sorry, I'm trying. Phones, power, WiFi, that sort of thing.

I understand and forgive .... A week in the outer Hebrides is like wifi deprivation ....

 

[AnneW]

Robjh glad you got the bike sorted and the trip us back on. The train ride is amazing isn't it? And you're in the best places for beaches, Camusdarach is stunning. I keep saying we're going to rent the cottage on the beach......

 

[robjh]

I was in the process of contacting a friend in Fort William to put you up for the night when you posted that you were on the train back to Mallaig! Oh well.

Thanks, a lovely thought. In the end I had a beautiful night camped right by Loch Ailort, but the midge storm this morning was quite something. I think the skin-so-soft must be protecting me from the worst. Back in Mallaig now for the Skye ferry,

 

[robjh]

Robjh glad you got the bike sorted and the trip us back on. The train ride is amazing isn't it? And you're in the best places for beaches, Camusdarach is stunning. I keep saying we're going to rent the cottage on the beach......

Indeed, I passed some beauties this morning, and it's sunny so you can imagine how it all looked.

 

[robjh]

Wild camping by Loch Ailort on Thursday night

I'm now (Sat morning) in a hostel at Broadford on Skye. A nice hostel but hard to sleep in a hot airless room of 4 with a heavy snorer on the bottom bunk. Looking forward to camping again! I got a litttle taste of Skye yesterday evening when, leaving the bags at the hostel I rode a minor road across the island to Elgol and back, below the Cuillin hills, but I will leave the rest of Skye for another year as I want to carry on up the west coast (storms or no!).

 

[Fab Foodie]

Wild camping by Loch Ailort on Thursday night
View attachment 138050
I'm now (Sat morning) in a hostel at Broadford on Skye. A nice hostel but hard to sleep in a hot airless room of 4 with a heavy snorer on the bottom bunk. Looking forward to camping again! I got a litttle taste of Skye yesterday evening when, leaving the bags at the hostel I rode a minor road across the island to Elgol and back, below the Cuillin hills, but I will leave the rest of Skye for another year as I want to carry on up the west coast (storms or no!).

I'm usually the snorer in the dorm so I never have such problems .... But being in an airy tent is so much nicer. Nice wild camping spot.

 

[Crankarm]

Wild camping by Loch Ailort on Thursday night
View attachment 138050
I'm now (Sat morning) in a hostel at Broadford on Skye. A nice hostel but hard to sleep in a hot airless room of 4 with a heavy snorer on the bottom bunk. Looking forward to camping again! I got a litttle taste of Skye yesterday evening when, leaving the bags at the hostel I rode a minor road across the island to Elgol and back, below the Cuillin hills, but I will leave the rest of Skye for another year as I want to carry on up the west coast (storms or no!).

I went to Fort William, Mallaig and onto Skye to the Trotternish and the Quiraing in early June. All was going well, absolutely stunning scenery, wild camping until I was eaten alive by midges at a crappy campsite in Broadford before hitting the Kyle of Lochalsh and riding over the Bealach na Ba. The shear number of midges was unreal, dense clouds of them and the bites I collected despite having 4 / 5 layers on plus my cycling jacket waterproof trousers, buff and hat, gloves sitting in my zipped up tent was shocking. You can hardly see them, unlike mossies, as they are so small - about 1mm in length. I counted over 400 bites and these didn't include the ones that hadn't yet surfaced! Hundreds were to start appearing even two weeks after I was home in places I didn't even know I had and areas I am sure I did not uncover. They can easily go through fabric as they are so small. Ideally you need midge netting or a heavy duty windproof or waterproof fabric. Any exposed skin however small is a potential target for these little ****ers! Suffice to say the next morning I called it quits and came home. Fortunately I was still able to get a cheapish train ticket for about £60. All the BnBs + hostels I saw were full and I only saw one other tent a couple of young Belgian lads riding on road bikes who obviously didn't know about midges! Lots of motorhomes Swiss and Italian, and bikers. Scotland any time outside winter is a no-go because of the midges unless you have body armour and certainly do NOT camp. Smidge was totally useless in the end against the onslaught of midges, they were just that many. Putting your tent up in a swarm is not fun. There were that many I could easily have made a midge soup or a sauce with them as I repeatedly splashed on the Smidge in desperation. Never again, well certainly not cycling or camping and not in summer. The scenery is spectacular and the people friendly, but the midges make it miserable. Rather you than me.

 

[Crankarm]

I've just bought my return train tickets to Inverness for this Sunday 31st July, so now there's no going back.
After a protracted struggle with Virgin East Coast website and customer services I have reserved cycle spaces as far as Edinburgh. This was so convoluted that it defeated the booking staff at my local station.
I've booked a £13 bed in a hostel in Edinburgh for Sunday night. It may be great or I may be kept awake all night by partying multi-national teens, but it is central, it offers bike parking and gives me a chance for a bit of sightseeing in Scotland's capital.

Then next day: no-one has been able to tell me if my onward train ticket to Inverness will be valid after a break of journey, so I will either carry on by train to Inverness, or make new plans. Either way, the adventure really starts there.

I've got a tent with me and some anti-midge stuff, but have found the Scottish Independent Hostels website which might be life savers on rainy or bitey nights. As for destinations, I'll be heading north-west, and hope at least to cross Bealach na Ba, and could conceivably reach Cape Wrath. Or not. I have 10 or so days and no need to fix my plans too far in advance.

Anyway, just off to start packing.

I only have praise for Virgin East Coast Main Line trains. My journey with them travelling with bike and full set of panniers was hassle free.Their website is extremely easy to use and book bikes (unlike Scotrail) and bike storage is in the goods carriage at the rear of the train which can only be accessed by train staff so your stuff is safe. The train was clean comfortable and on time. I got a return ticket with bike to Mallaig/Fort William for not very much money at all, under £50. I wish more train companies were like them with respect to carrying bikes.

 

[raleighnut]

I went to Fort William, Mallaig and onto Skye to the Trotternish and the Quiraing in early June. All was going well, absolutely stunning scenery, wild camping until I was eaten alive by midges at a crappy campsite in Broadford before hitting the Kyle of Lochalsh and riding over the Bealach na Ba. The shear number of midges was unreal, dense clouds of them and the bites I collected despite having 4 / 5 layers on plus my cycling jacket waterproof trousers, buff and hat, gloves sitting in my zipped up tent was shocking. You can hardly see them, unlike mossies, as they are so small - about 1mm in length. I counted over 400 bites and these didn't include the ones that hadn't yet surfaced! Hundreds were to start appearing even two weeks after I was home in places I didn't even know I had and areas I am sure I did not uncover. They can easily go through fabric as they are so small. Ideally you need midge netting or a heavy duty windproof or waterproof fabric. Any exposed skin however small is a potential target for these little ****ers! Suffice to say the next morning I called it quits and came home. Fortunately I was still able to get a cheapish train ticket for about £60. All the BnBs + hostels I saw were full and I only saw one other tent a couple of young Belgian lads riding on road bikes who obviously didn't know about midges! Lots of motorhomes Swiss and Italian, and bikers. Scotland any time outside winter is a no-go because of the midges unless you have body armour and certainly do NOT camp. Smidge was totally useless in the end against the onslaught of midges, they were just that many. Putting your tent up in a swarm is not fun. There were that many I could easily have made a midge soup or a sauce with them as I repeatedly splashed on the Smidge in desperation. Never again, well certainly not cycling or camping and not in summer. The scenery is spectacular and the people friendly, but the midges make it miserable. Rather you than me.

The trick to camping in Scotland is to be as high up as you can get, Ideally on top of a Monroe.

 

[Crackle]

Wild camping by Loch Ailort on Thursday night
View attachment 138050
I'm now (Sat morning) in a hostel at Broadford on Skye. A nice hostel but hard to sleep in a hot airless room of 4 with a heavy snorer on the bottom bunk. Looking forward to camping again! I got a litttle taste of Skye yesterday evening when, leaving the bags at the hostel I rode a minor road across the island to Elgol and back, below the Cuillin hills, but I will leave the rest of Skye for another year as I want to carry on up the west coast (storms or no!).

You look like a vagrant, Rob, you untidy bugger.

 

[raleighnut]

You look like a vagrant, Rob, you untidy bugger.

 

[robjh]

You look like a vagrant, Rob, you untidy bugger.

I cleared up after me, honest!

 

[robjh]

You look like a vagrant, Rob, you untidy bugger.

Anyway, you think that was bad. See here what just 6 days of cycle touring in Scotland can do to a man

 

[Hill Wimp]

Rob we had midges on the way down to the coast today honest. I certainly ate a few dozen however it did seem to be an isolated swarm thankfully.