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

Sustrans route 2 - Dover to St Austell

In March I decided to ride Sustrans / National Cycle Network route 2 which takes you from Dover to St Austell or vice versa. I cycled down to Broadstairs to stay with friends so I was near the start and then passed a weekend at leisure in Folkestone before setting off on the route proper. Here is the consolidated Strava route.

I now put my photos on Instagram so if you follow 'dishbike' you can see my daily progress as I go. This is a quick summary with one photo per day.

Day 1 - Broadstairs to Folkestone - 33 miles - 2,149 feet of climbing

A short stage but surprisingly hilly. The start point of each numbered route isn't always obvious and part of this one was closed.

Day 2 - Folkestone to Eastbourne - 62 miles - climbing 1070 feet

The stage is flat with all of the climbing done in one hit, Battery Hill at Fairlight.

A naked lady saw me off on my ride, this sculpture was modelled on a resident.

Day 3 - Eastbourne to Chichester - 59 Miles - Climbing 1,847 feet

Eastbourne Beach - wonderful

I took the wrong route out of Eastbourne which added to the climbing.

Day 4 - Chichester to Christchurch - 70 miles - climbing 1,713 feet

My planning didn't take account of the fact that I needed to take 4 ferries today so time ebbed away. One jetty was so far out in the creek that foot passengers got to take the train - bikes don't fit.

Day 5 - Christchurch to Dorchester - 41 miles - climbing 1,411 feet

I managed to get one day down below 50 miles and a brewery opposite the hotel at the end.

Day 6 - Dorchester to Seaton - 46 miles - climbing 3,579 feet

Up and down all day. The climb up to the monument was well worth it though for the view.

Day 7 - Seaton to Bovey Tracey - 50 miles - climbing 5,007 feet

I have friends in Bovey Tracey and they asked me on arrival if I wanted to go to a quiz to help raise money to send local scouts to the annual jamboree in South Korea which is scheduled for August 2023. We came about 7th out of 20 teams as I recall (probably badly after a lot of beer).

I used the dry bridge route.

Day 8 - Bovey Tracey to Plymouth - 34 miles - Climbing 3,159 feet

Another shorter day but plenty of hills. The views are the reward. This is near Buckfastleigh.

Day 9 - Plymouth to St Austell - 42 miles - climbing 4,636 feet

Cornwall is just so hilly and seeing the final Sustrans finger post is such a pleasure.

So that is a tick next to route 2 and I am 90% through route 1, the longest route. I have 2.5 days of it to complete, half a day near Ipswich which I missed due to breakdown and the two days from Enfield Lock to Dover (will actually only go as far as Sandwich as did the final section of route 1 when starting route 2).

The start of route 4 is planned for July.

End.

Criss crossing Essex in February 2022

 

After riding from London to Glasgow my mind turned to other possible rides. I fancy doing a lap of France but then thought I might fit that into a ride from the north of Norway to the south of Portugal but would probably exceed the maximum time I can go abroad without a visa. I also wanted to stay near home to avoid any covid related shutdowns and have also sighed up to ride across the Hebrides which I am looking forward to as I have never been having often motorcycled to France as it is quicker to get to than Scotland.

Then the mad idea formed to cycle every single Sustrans National Cycle Network route in the UK which amounts to 12.500 miles + some joining up mileage. I decided to test out the possibility of cycling them one map page at a time (there are 56 individually printed maps) and it was just warm enough in February to give Essex a go. I missed a few sections as I was too ambitious in terms of miles to cover, too slow on muddy off road sections and short of daylight but still managed 90% of the routes. This was a test to see what it was like to go back on yourself in order to join up with other routes. The conclusion was that it made navigating slower and more complex and going back the way you just pedalled wasn't all that satisfying.

Thus I changed the plan to one of ticking off the numbered routes one at a time. Having already cycled route 3 (more or less) from Lands End to Bristol, on my way to John O'Groats in 2020, I won't repeat it and route 1 is from Tain, north of Inverness to Dover which I will do once I have cycled the Hebrides. My attention turned to route 2 from Dover to St Austell so that is what I did next, in that direction. Generally I'm going to take the train to the end and head back towards London as that will be riding in the direction of home, always a welcome sight.

Riding every day for a week in February was OK, I wasn't roasting, it was usually 8-10 degrees, and I wore long cycling bottoms with ski socks and two shirts under a wind proof cycling jacket so wasn't cold either. I was lucky, just the one awful morning when hailstones were bouncing off the road when I wanted to set off, I let those stop and then cycled in the steady rain with my hotel shower cap over my cycle helmet, a vision to behold.

I cycled 303 miles during the week, so still over 12,000 to go. I have refined my plan though. To me 50 miles is a good day of riding so I'm not going to ride any cycle route which is shorter (unless it joins up two longer ones).

So that's the plan which will form most of my cycling in 2022 and 2023.

Derek

2021 - my year in cycling

It was only in February that I moved on from maps to find my way around (we always liked maps on my French motorbike trips as we often got lost and found new roads which turned out to be good biking roads) and although I did go off route sometimes it wasn't usually more than a mile or two which doesn't take long to retrace.

Strava do an annual summary of your year. Future years probably won't see so many faster times as I will be doing different routes and 2021 was setting the standard.

I did about the same mileage in the car and only 300 on the motorbike (a single day out with mates under the careful eye of a police motorcycle instructor).

There is a challenge in cycling called 'everesting' which I'm not yet fit enough for.

8,848m = 29,009 feet so I climbed Everest four times, luckily not all at once. About 290 repetitions of Barnet Hill would equate to riding up Everest, I did 6,600 feet of climbing on day 5 of London Glasgow, that was sufficient?

Pedro Bento has been to Everest base camp on a bicycle riding solo, you won't be seeing me there as I suffered from altitude sickness in Shimla. There are organised trips should you be madder or braver than me. It was in October that I cycled, along with many others, from London to Glasgow. I might have given up before I started if I had seen the spike in the chart beforehand but I was fitter for it.

I stayed home a lot in 2021, I'm going to get out more in 2022, especially as I'm fully jabbed and will keep up to date.

Rounding came into play as 2,918 miles above.

My average journey was just 3 hours in the saddle.

I have decided to cycle a lot more in 2022. I'll see you out there.

End.

COP 26 - day 8 - the procession into Glasgow

The run up to day 8, an easy day, the final procession followed by an overnight train home, didn't go as planned. I had carefully booked a berth on the overnight sleeper for the final day way back on 4 September. Firstly industrial action slightly delayed the journey and then on 28 October at 18:58 it was cancelled. There wasn't time to deal with it then, the posse had a dinner reservation for 7pm at the local pizza place in Penrith. The next evening I send an online enquiry to Avanti to see if there were any spaces for a bicycle on the Glasgow - Euston route that coming Sunday. I expected a reply within 24 hours. I did get one, there weren't.

On the Saturday morning in Dumfries I had a little more time and a decent wifi signal in the hotel and so I thought about options to get home. I remembered there was a new branch of Enterprise Rent a Car in High Barnet and so, although expensive, I could, should there be a vehicle available, have a one way rental. I went to their website, looked for a van in Glasgow and found a choice of two. I used to drive a Renault Trafic and the equivalent, a Vauxhall Vivaro was sitting there waiting to be rented so I booked it at 07:30 paid instantly and then packed my panniers and set off for the start point. I hadn't long been at the start point when I received a call from a Glasgow number, Enterprise, calling me to say they didn't have any vans and the website was out of date. Great. I was too surprised to think to ask if they had any cars (they probably didn't) as I could take the wheels off the bike and get it into a hatchback easily enough. There wasn't time to do anything else about my getting home problem then as I had 80 miles to cycle.

Shockingly Enterprise having advertised a van that wasn't available, cancelled it without much by way of an apology (absolutely nothing in writing or by email) aren't in anything like as much of a rush to refund me as to take my money in the first place. When Caledonian cancelled the sleeper the money was sent straight back to my card and the same for Avanti when they cancelled my Preston-Penrith train, a refund within 24 hours of me making a claim (they just needed to check I hadn't used the ticket on a different service) no fuss, no drama. The risible explanation I was given by someone who rang me from the Glasgow office after I had given Enterprise a good kicking on twitter, was that they had sent my payment to the USA. That's as may be but they really need a better system for making refunds. I'm not near my credit limit but others may be and having this money tied up (£251.99) despite a second promise that a refund was on the way on 4 November, could put some people in financial difficulties and leave them unable to pay for a replacement hire.

I've got bored now, Enterprise have had long enough, and I've been on my Barclaycard account, marked the transaction as disputed and then completed, printed out, signed and posted a claim to Barclaycard (can't do the whole thing on line in 2021!) and pointed out Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act to them which makes Barclaycard equally liable for a refund. I may get the refund by Xmas. Hopefully none of my readers will now rent from them, I won't be doing so.

On to happier matters. As there had been a hotel shortage in East Kilbride thanks to COP 26 and 100 of us cyclists landing I booked as near as I could which was Rutherglen. 

I therefore decided to hang around at Rutherglen waiting for the procession to reach me from East Kilbride as it was coming almost past my hotel. It turned out that Anna Hughes was saying a few words at the start, as doubtless were others, and so I missed her use me as an example of what you can do if you put your mind to it, in that I went further, higher and faster all on the one day, so don't doubt yourselves. It was mizzling as I stood, early of course and the procession was running late, outside the Rutherglen United Reform Church which was busy. One worshipper invited me inside out of the wet and another said we (the London - Glasgow cyclists) were all mad, a little truth in that remark perhaps. Anyway, time passed and eventually the riders pitched up and I joined the line as we ambled to our destination of Glasgow Green.

These photos are from East Kilbride, fun was being had.

 

You can see what a wet day it was but as everyone was geared up for it cycling in the wet is fine.

The destination arrived quickly, a 6 mile procession only taking 30 minutes, nothing to us after 500 miles in 7 days.

This bike didn't do the entire journey.

Here are four of the Barnet posse, Charlotte had to stop on doctor's orders. She was sad about that and we missed her, especially as it was her who told me about the ride. I think we were all a bit sad that the ride was over but happy at the achievement. Penny & Salim are both experienced cyclists and I had cycled 50 miles with them before the event and I knew how quick they both were, easily able to leave me for dust. Kristien on her e-bike was a revelation, going distances she also hadn't done in a week before whilst working harder on the flat than anyone.

A lucky shot Kristien, you and a good banner.

 

That disposable shower cap lasted a few days and has been saved, single use plastic not being within the spirit of COP26.

The Trek, bought from Bike & Run in Finchley between 5 and 10 years ago, did sterling service, the only problem being that I wore through the new brakes in a week. I will carry spare blocks for long journeys in future. Not a single puncture unlike Kenny who 'won' with 9 but then he was on a road bike with narrow tyres and I had puncture resistant Marathon Plus tyres and the rear was a new one (thanks to Johns Cycles at New Barnet for the pre ride service).

Pretty much all of the organisers, Anna in the middle as no bikes to fix now.

A hard working photographer.

The band livened up the finish. Many cyclists were able to manage a dance.

Grey skies but no-one cared.

The previous evening at 9.30 pm I had spent some time on the phone to Avanti. They got me on a train home the enxt evening departing from Edinburgh at 7pm. Kristien was staying an extra night, Penny & Salim were on an afternoon train out of Glasgow. We had a final lunch together and then split up. I took my train to Edinburgh and found carnage at the station. Overhead power lines down at Peterborough, all the trains in the wrong place and delay and the passengers from four trains all getting on the one for which I had a booking. Penny & Salim fared worse. Their train was stopped at Preston (I love the place) due to flooding and then got returned to Lancaster and spent a night in the Travelodge before getting home the next day. By waiting an extra day Kristien had an event free journey.

I got into Kings Cross just before 1am and I really enjoyed my ride home. Hardly any traffic and it seemed so warm. I was home in an hour and still exhilarated from the adventures of the week.

I was clearly making good progress with personal records (PR) up the segregated bike lane.

Many of the riders had made pledges to camera during the week. Here is Charlotte's

Looking at you Barnet Council.

What a week. The end, until the next long trip.

Still time for you to pledge.