Ullapool to Edinburgh - Route 1 from Tain

 

The recently shortened official Sustrans route 1 now starts at Tain. I landed from the Hebrides in Ullapool and had two choices of cycling route to get to Tain (or I could have recovered my cycle at Inverness and then taken a train north), either the southerly route via Dingwall and then north to Tain (a route I took on Land's End - John O'Groats two years ago) or the new to me route north out of Ullapool and then south east to Tain so I went for the new route.

The date I departed Ullapool was fixed and I had already been away for a week when I decided to tack the 1,000 mile route 1 onto the end of it. My girlfriend is very understanding but being away for a month isn't cricket so we agreed to meet, at first in Edinburgh, for a weekend and I also needed to be back in London for some meetings that week. I thought the simple answer was to leave my bike in Edinburgh to be serviced and then pop back to London by train as that is a good way to travel if you can't cycle. The weekend away was moved to York as being more central and meaning quicker train journeys for both of us. By chance we met a man from Sustrans near York station. 

The weekend and the end of the Hebrides trip set the number of days available for me to cycle to Edinburgh. I had checked distances on google and they didn't seem to exceed 60 a day so off I went. Google takes the shorter route for its distances. I should have used ridewithgps which is more accurate.

Here is the punishing schedule I ended up with, only Tain to Inverness being less than challenging.

Prior to this trip my previous longest day was 89.55 miles which included Shap Fell and that was without 2 panniers (one contains a small laptop! and the other a D-lock which also weighs at least a kilogram) with my day clothes, wash bag, spare cycling kit, tools & spares etc.

Lots of climbing is as hard as long distances and I really don't recommend that you replicate the overnight stops that I used (although you may be much quicker than me) but you do want or need time to stop and eat and take photographs. I have Schwalbe Marathon tyres on the bike and they are pretty robust but losing 30 minutes to fix a puncture on this schedule would hurt. I would add in two more nights if I found myself in this corner of Scotland again.

I now have a longest ride of 91 miles but that involves rolling into your hotel after 10pm so dinner isn't an option although they kindly opened the bar for me.

Here are some of the photos I took. You can get all these live on instagram on my hashtag of @dishbike.

It is funny to see a sign for somewhere north when you are going south.

In the background you may be able to see a man walking. He was headed to Dover or Folkestone, I can't remember which. I was also headed to Folkestone but we were going in opposite direction. These two cyclists were from Folkestone or thereabouts, they had just enjoyed their best ever coffee with the view, a coffee they made themsleves as they were camping. They thought the encounter of us all, basically in the middle of nowhere, was the most bizarre event of their trip so far.

Just look at the views.

This was the view from where I met the two cyclists above.

Love a ferry, this one took 2 cars, drive on reverse off, and anything else which would fit.

An agricultural area, such colour.

I had been along the river here when travelling the other way on LEJOG two years ago, it was comforting.

At some point I will cycle route 7.

Love a viaduct. I seem to recall a murderous hill once I passed it.

The views, again.

These cows rowed up like  a welcoming committee.

A lovely breakfast at the Royal Oak in Cullen to set me up for the day. A very hilly town.

Thought I was suddenly in Essex.

I kept encountering diversion signs, can I sneak through or not? I usually give it a go.

Old railway lines usually make good cycle tracks.

More views. Scotland is endlessly beautiful.

I had a choice of a road or a track, I took the track and so came across this unofficial distance post.

A closed route did not have a diversion posted, I found out how unpassable it was the hard way.

This footpath was closed but it would have been better to bar the route.

Super view number 4.

The hotel was very grand (once but it had faded a bit).

Great safe route for cycles.

Forth Bridge, nearly in Edinburgh.

Although I accidentally set myself a stupid schedule I did it and survived. I also whacked out more miles than expected and learnt something which made the rest of the journey easier. I also had a rest for a week before continuing southwards.

Scotland is beautiful. You need to plan your stops carefully and pack food and drink as you may go many miles without seeing any sort of shop.

The end, for now.

 

Riding the Outer Hebrides

Having ridden from London to Glasgow last year with Brake the Cycle and had a fabulous time despite it being October and thus I looked at what else they had to offer and immediately booked to ride the Outer Hebrides. This was before I had decided to ride nearly all the Sustrans routes but having paid my deposit I decided it could easily be followed by traversing route 1 from Tain towards Dover.

Our plotted route was from Barra to the Butt of Lewis and then Stornaway. I recorded the ride on Strava save for part of a day when the Wahoo battery was flat as the charging cable was defective (I got a new one from another rider by swapping it for a spare Apple cable).

The group were due to meet up at the YHA in Glasgow, a lovely grand building overlooking Kelvingrove Park. I decided that rather than 4 or 5 hours awake on a train that I would take the overnight sleeper. We (I met one of the organisers James, who I knew from London - Glasgow, and his dad Andrew, 75 and pretty fast) went on an interesting route up to Stonebridge Park and then back to Camden before going up the Kings Cross line due to rail works elsewhere.

That left time to spare in Glasgow that afternoon and so a trip to the Kelvingrove Art Gallery was in order. It contained a Van Gogh I hadn't seen before.

The evening was passed in a private dining room where we all (about 18 of us) introduced ourselves.

 

I was on the other table but slowly through the week we all got to talk to each other.

 

It was an early ferry to Barra after a coach ride from Glasgow so no-one went mad the first night.

 

The sea was fairly calm but it was a bit dull and wet so no-one fancied sitting on the outer deck.

We weren't cycling on arrival, just settling in to our hostel, which overlooked the harbour. Some brave souls went for a swim.

We had a briefing each morning covering any important points such as where lunch was to be and if there were any ferry crossings and their times.

 

Lunch was taken overlooking the airport runway, yes it is on the sand.

There was a ferry crossing on this first day

The overnight stop was in Uist.

Day 2 of proper riding was a scheduled 50 miles. A couple of riders weren't used to that distance and I wasn't in a rush I offered to ride at the back to keep one of them company and help them get through the increased miles as it is easier when someone distracts you.

The morning briefings were usually followed by some light stretching.

I like a bit of lobster but our catering bus doesn't run to that as the food served is usually vegan to cater for all tastes (and is tasty)

A sign I haven't seen before. You can also see the causeway which connects two islands which we were about to cross.

It was the festival of Beltane so off we went to the beach to celebrate

 We enjoyed a stunning sunset.

The next day we saw yet more stunning scenery with this view only marred by my presence.

There were lots of honesty arrangements for buying eggs, cake or tourist type gifts.

I surprised many riders when we had to do a quick 10 miles, mostly uphill, to the gin and whisky distillery (as my charge took a rest for one session in the van) and I blasted off like the last man there would be paying for the drinks. It was interesting that gin takes a couple of days to make as opposed to the 10+ years for Whisky.

The purpose of the Calanais Stones is, as is often the case, not entirely clear.

Before you knew it we were at the northern end of the islands which makes one both happy and sad at the same time.

Just one last night in Stornoway in the HebHostel and then off to catch the early ferry back to Ullapool.

I have now cycled long distance routes in group size from 1 (just me) through to 100+ (London to Glasgow). I think this was a good route to cycle in a smallish group, the islands don't lend themselves to mass tourism. There aren't many facilities between the towns/islands or even within some of them so having a backup van is a good idea.

It was a sad departure from the group at Ullapool, they were all getting on a coach to Inverness before dispersing to various homes. I was back by myself and about to have a punishing few days, a good job I took in easy in the Hebrides.

If you do get a chance to go there or on a Brake the Cycle trip to anywhere, do go.

Derek