Coast-to-Coast Scotland (3)
Torridon (27 August)
Another big day to rival the Fisherfield day.
We ride out along the road to Loch Clair, and then go off-road along to Loch Coulin. We ride past Coulin and up to where the river junction is crossed by a bridge. Here, most of the party go up to Drochaid Coire Laire, which is a rather technical ascent, and followed by a technical descent to Achnashellach. Iain and I, however, take the Coulin Pass, which is much less technical, less steep, but still has amazing views back to the hills around Loch Maree.
On the Coulin pass
As we descend to Achnashellach Station, the views open up towards the West.
View opening up down to Loch Carron in the far distance, and Loch Dughaill in the middle distance.
Heading west along the road, in a few short miles we reach Coulags, and head up the valley towards Coire Fionaraich. We refresh our water at the bridge, and spend a while at the Coulags bothy.
However, not knowing how far the rest of the group are behind us, we take the opportunity to push on in perfect weather and try to get the climb to Bealach na Lice out of the way before the others catch us. This was successful, and we had an hour to relax, refuel and chat to the odd passing walker and mountain biker.
Bike parking at Bealach na Lice
The view at Bealach na Lice
When the rest of the group arrive, their morning has been much more challenging than ours, with the odd crash, and they’re suffering from not having the rest we’ve enjoyed. Time to regroup and everything is downhill from here!
We ride the singletrack around Loch an Eion, then onto the bedrock slabs by Lochan Domhain before finally committing to the descent to Annat. All of the riding on this descent is rewarded by a bold approach, remembering that “speed is your friend.” Many times on the descent I’m amazed at the work being done by the suspension: the right speed and body position just push the bike through choss, boulders and drop-offs, and while it isn’t a smooth ride, it’s a controlled ride.
Part-way down the descent, Liathach in the background
Iain enjoying his ride
Much Torridonian sandstone bedrock to ride on
At the bottom of the descent after immense fun, we cycle the few hundred metres to
The Torridon Inn, where we will be spending the next two nights.
Rest Day (28 August)
The rest day is spent resting: late breakfast, sorting out the bags, reading, and then in the evening an excellent meal in Torridon with one of the guides, Ross, jumping out of the meal periodically to go mackerel fishing.
Ross prefers fishing to eating
Applecross (29 August)
Final day :-(
We ride out along the rough track along the shore to avoid the road, before being forced back onto the tarmac just before Sheildaig. Then there is
a roller-coaster of a road ridearound to Kenmore with just a short stretch of downhill singletrack at A’Bhainlir.
No more road riding, and the end is (almost) in sight
We climb to the plateau and enjoy the easy singletrack across the peninsula. There are amazing views back to the Torridon hills we’ve recently been riding amongst.
Amazing scenery that we’ve ridden through the last few days
Before too long, we’re on the descent to Applecross and riding along the landrover track to the beach. Our crossing of Scotland is over, the weather has been amazing throughout, the company excellent, organization perfect, and now to round it off, we have lunch in
The Applecross Inn before heading back to Inverness.
Walker, Dan, Iain, Jens, Colin, Alex, Julia, Gareth, Khrysten and Craig on Applecross beach
A few words of thanks
The week was absolutely made by our guides:
Alex,
Tim and Ross. Besides guiding us on an amazing journey across a beautiful part of Scotland, their endless energy, humour, knowledge and bringing together a group of strangers into what rapidly became a group of old friends was truly inspirational. It was also great to have a mobile bike repair team, fishing tutor and photographic instruction along as bonus. Thanks to all three of you, and hope to see you soon.
Also to
Euan and Cat. An amazing company, with all the organisation sorted down to the last detail.
H&I Adventures have now twice delivered fantastic mountain biking holidays for me, taught me a lot about biking, and a fair bit about myself.
And finally, to the team I was riding with all week. You made the trip – what a bunch of chilled folk, of varying ability, all happy to muck-in, ride and chat together, laugh at the crashes, help out when needed, wade through the rivers, plod through the bogs and, most importantly, share the beer and post-ride banter in the pubs. I’m looking forward to riding with you all again soon. Slovenia…?
Post script
Besides the trip just being immense fun in my favourite part of the world, this also showed my training for the Ride Across Britain, now less than a week away, has paid off: back-to-back hard days, and still on the final day around Applecross I was able to power away on the hills as we rode around the peninsula. Alex, no mean athlete, said this trip was ideal training, especially with the recovery week before LEJOG begins. Soon I’ll be discovering what back-to-back hundred mile days feel like.
. After my rest stop I started to head back via Abbeytown, Kirkbride, Glasson and Burgh.
. Bloody idiot.
I just had to hope the TourRides would do their job.
I topped it up (btw: a thankyou to the chap on the blue Ribble who stopped to check if I was okay 
