Mervyn Ward

We cycled out in lovely weather and went past the beautiful beaches of Seilobost estuary and then began to climb. At one stage I thought that this was the major climb of the morning, only to go around a corner to see the real climb ahead. We all managed to bridge this and began the drop into Tarbert and the lovely inland harbour.

It was lovely that in the Harbour was the Hebridean Princess the cruise ship that mum and dad loved to cruise the Scottish islands. It turned out Pete’s parents had also been on it.

We met up with Pete at the coffee stop on the main road for breakfast. We then visited the isle of Harris tweed shop (flat caps purchased). Outside of this we met with a French cyclist who had cycled from Paris and was zooming along the islands, travelling light with one of the bags Julia had mentioned sticking out the back. We gave him a coffee recommendation. We also gave another cafe recommendation to another couple who we later met up with.

We had a quick visit to the Tarbert distillery for whisky and gin tasting. Purchases were made and Pete took them back to the van and then went onto do some shopping.

We then started out on the Heb way route out of Tarbert. My map had been to do the Golden road route but Vin felt it would be easier this way (looking at inclines afterwards it probably was) .

So we started going uphill which was …a challenge. We persuaded Jim that he should use his lowest gears and he then sailed past us both and zoomed up the mountain. He waited for us at what he thought was the top of the climb only for us to find that it was half way.!!

By this time we were in the mist and views above made it impossible to see any eagles etc. it also made it slightly windy with cross winds and head winds making handling difficult. I was amazed when a lady came by with her bike laden with panniers climbing faster than any of us.

We went over the top after 6 miles of climbing with the first mile at 7.5% and ramps of 12% and a total average of 3%. It was cold and damp at the top so I put a jacket on and zoomed down the other side.

We descended quickly, looking forward to meeting up with Pete. Jim and I saw a large bird (?baby eagle or large buzzard) whilst Vin was informed by the above couple that our next stop - the Kinloch cafe was closed. We , later found them there and it turned out they were on their honeymoon. Pete had info about another cafe a mile later, but we all missed it completely. We were now desperate and so we stopped at a layout for a drink and snack. Lo and behold we met up with the French guy again. He was getting tired and had run out of water so we topped him up and sent him on his way with a protein bar.

Later, we saw 2 deer which Jim and I frightened so much they ran away, so the photos are of small backsides. We also saw yet another buzzard. We arrived at Callanish bushed, the last few miles of the 51 miles we did today were dead straight, but still up and down.

At the Callanish stones smaller in height but older than Stonehenge more than 5000 yrs old. They have no idea why they are there. We chatted to the lady who said that old men were called “bodoch”. We went to the stones and went around a bit but we were getting cold and needed to get going

We went to the smallest fish and chip shop in the world on a surreal small road. We took them back to our campsite which is functional but in the mist you cannot see much.
We had an early night to recover.Weiterlesen