Our B&B had excellent double glazing, which deadened the howling gale, but not the car alarm that sounded at 4 am, presumably set off by a gust of wind.

We peered anxiously out of the window at various times before we were due to leave – it was hard to judge just how strong the wind was, given the lack of trees, but at least the rain was predicted to be showers rather than steady. We faced over 40 miles in these ‘interesting’ conditions!

 

The view from our room on the first day of cycling!

Compare the picture above with the similar view the previous evening!

The day’s ride probably features as the most unpleasant in all our tours. We faced a strong 35 mph headwind for most of the day, bringing a serious lashing of rain. In these conditions, nothing keeps your hands and feet dry – Carol staved off the inevitable by wearing full gloves and neoprene overshoes, but ultimately we both had wet and cold hands and feet.

Stopping far more than a few minutes resulted in a severe drop
in body temperature so, with only a few exceptions such as ‘nature breaks’ and to cram bananas and snack bars down our gullets, we felt it prudent to keep moving.

The only cyclists we saw were a group of four with a straggler (who I assume was not actually part of the same group) who passed us during one of our stops. We caught the straggler, and though l hoped he’d tag onto our wheel, he was soon well behind us. We passed the other four as they stopped at a Co-Op.

By about 25 miles of this abuse, Carol was feeling the conditions a bit. We paused for one of our snack bar breaks, and I was a little shocked at her weather beaten appearance. I imagine l looked much the same! Unfortunately the best tactic seemed to be to press on as best we could to our B&B in Lochmaddy.

By Clachan it was clear that Carol was severely energy depleted except for the four or five miles after each snack bar! At least the wind wasn’t in our faces so much after we turned eastwards at Clachan…

We made it to the B&B in Lochmaddy, packed the bike away in a wooden summer house and proceeded to get cleaned up (and warmed up). It took a surprisingly long time to regain full sensation in my fingertips. We booked dinner in the Hotel formerly known as Tigh Dearg. I figured several beers and possibly whiskies beckoned!

Lochmaddy is quite a small village. It has a community art centre with a nice cafe open during the day and two hotels. The Lochmaddy Hotel gives the impression of having seen better days – it seems to cater for the fishing brigade. In the past we’ve had quite good seafood there, but our last visit (several years ago) wasn’t so great. It may have improved. The other hotel was until recently the Tigh Dearg (Red House) and was quite swanky. We stayed there for a couple of nights a few years ago. It’s been sold to new owners, and it’s now called the Hamersay House Hotel, and it has been painted blue! As well as two hotels, Lochmaddy has a few bed and breakfasts. We stayed (as we had done on a couple of previous occasions) at Rushlee House. It’s always very friendly and is well-appointed.

According to Wikipedia, Lochmaddy was a haven for pirates back in the early 17th century (but no citation is provided). All very quiet these days, no Jack Sparrows haunting the place! It does have some interesting marine life (possibly about to be challenged by a planned marina). A short walk takes you to the House of Shadows, a rather neat camera obscura built out of stone and looking like a cairn.

Over at the Hamersay House Hotel, we shared a starter of hot and cold smoked salmon, smoked scallops and fish pate, followed by local venison burger with brie and bacon (me) and salmon (Carol). I had a couple of bottles of beer from an Orkney brewery, Corncrake Ale and Northern Light.

After dinner we had a stroll around. Nothing much had changed other than the ownership of the former Tigh Dearg, and its transformation from red to blue! By this time the wind had almost entirely dropped and it was really rather nice. Maybe tomorrow will be OK, we thought.

 

The Hamersay House Hotel (formerly Tigh Dearg)

Through all the day’s abuse, the Thorn tandem behaved well with impeccable handling even in some of the more alarming single
track road incidents.

We woke to a resurgence in wind velocity – and it was going to be tight getting to the Berneray to Leverburgh ferry in time. In response to my stoker’s urgings, I tried to keep our pace up, but this was difficult given the very strong headwinds. Oh, and the bizarre conversation from a motorist wondering if he was on the right road for Benbecula! In the end, we made the ferry with about 10 minutes to spare.

The crossing was pretty uneventful – we chatted with other passengers two of whom we’d met at our first B&B. I saw a gannet and a large eagle circling over the sea that seemed to excite the birdwatching contingent: they all dashed out on deck to have a better look.

Once in Leverburgh (which has an interesting history – it’s worth visiting the link), we popped into the grocery store for some snack bars, then headed off up the west coast road, rather than the rather more arduous Golden Road. We had ridden this route some years before, on the old Dawes tandem with a full camping load, and we thought that while it’s a glorious route, it might be a bit unpleasant with the NE gale. But even on the western route, the head wind was still pretty hard going. At least our feet and hands were still dry as it hadn’t begun to rain. We stopped periodically to photograph the landscapes.

 

Even under glowering clouds, the beaches seem to glow

 

I had trouble holding my phone level in the gales

 

The Stoker braced against the elements!

 

Wild skies on South Harris

It was while we were in the Hebrides Art gallery and tea room
(eating scones and drinking tea) that the drizzle began. Soon after, the big climb began. Despite the rain, this was pretty good going, and it wasn’t until well after the top that we felt the full force of the wind, laden with rain coming at me with sufficient velocity that it felt like l was being blasted with stones, and rendering me practically sightless. Still, we reached Tarbert in good shape (though slightly soggy).

The B&B we were heading for no longer does evening meals, so we thought we’d have a quick survey of Tarbert for something to eat. Sadly, everything seemed shut. Even a bar advertising “all day food” didn’t start serving food till 5pm. We decided to press on. As we headed out of Tarbert, the wind seemed to strengthen and the rain came on again.

Soon enough we saw the climb of Clisham (the highest mountain in the Outer Hebrides) rearing up ahead of us, with its steep 1:7 section waiting to be scaled. I racked down the gearing as the gradient steepend. We were doing OK in gear 1 (at basically walking speed) until the wind was shrieking and flinging us from side to side and ultimately blew us to a standstill. Steering at our low speed was in practice impossible, so we bit the bullet and climbed off to push though the worst of the wind. There’s a quarry halfway up – there we remounted to ride the rest of the way.

Pretty soon we were an the top, then descending gently to the turn-off for Maraig. This is quite a sleep descent to sea level, but easily negotiated (on the way down at least). At Lochedge Guest House, we had a really warm welcome, and settled into a splendid large room. We’d visited Lochedge back in 2012 – it’s possibly the best appointed B&B we’ve ever stayed in. Sadly, Richard Barrett, who runs the place with his wife, is closing the B&B at the end of this year. We heated up a couple of sachets of our travelling food for dinner in the kitchen, then chatted for a while with another couple staying there. And so to bed, reflecting on another tough day in the saddle.

We planned an easier day for day 4, but what exactly depends on the weather. At least the wind seems to be forecast to be dropping in intensity.

First morning on Harris

We decided to take it a bit easier today. The wind was still quite strong and from the north bringing cool temperatures and showers, so after a fine breakfast we set off up the steep road from Loch Seaforth up to the main road. A wee bit of climbing and then the spectacular descent from Clisham. The tandem’s brakes were well up to the task. But another bout of pedalling into a stiff headwind really didn’t fill us with enthusiasm!

Loch Seaforth

Eventually we paused in the shelter of a roadside quarry to eat our packed lunches. In so doing, we startled three fledgling crows, one of which nearly fell into a pond.

After lunch, we could see dark clouds looming and decided to
head back to the B&B.

Having a tail wind was such a change! We roared back to Clisham in double quick time, and found the climb quite easy in gear 5. From there it was an easy ride back to the B&B. We took the rest of the day easy.

After hearing quite a few cuckoos, we finally saw one, flying overhead.

We were becoming rather optimistic that the next few days will see better weather…though I guess it was rather difficult to see how things could worsen!

I woke to hear cuckoos, which is always a good way to start the day! After yesterday’s easy day, we were looking forward to at least some relatively easy cycling. We had no huge rush for the morning’s ferry, as Tarbert is only about 10 miles from the B&B, and the ferry leaves at 11:50am on Saturdays.

After another fine breakfast, this time porage followed by smoked salmon and scrambled eggs, we loaded up the tandem and set off up the steep climb to the main road. I’m still getting used to which Rohloff gear to select for particular gradients, but gear 3 seemed to work OK!

The temperature was still pretty low, around 7°C, and the low cloud was bringing some drizzle on the north wind. This, together with the plunge down the sleep side of the Clisham climb meant we’d chosen some pretty warm clothing. We zoomed down the hill and flashed past the Dutch woman we’d met back in Oban, calling out a greeting that was probably lost as we were doing 40-something miles an hour!

The disc brake was making some odd noises intermittently in the descent, but didn’t seem to be particularly worn from what I could see. Replacing brake pads wasn’t something I wanted to do halfway down Clisham in the wind and drizzle, particularly as this would require unbolting the rear rack to access the pads. When we got home, I checked the pads, they didn’t need replacing.

In Tarbert, there was an enormous number of cars waiting for the ferry. We were surprised that they all fitted on board! We were last to board, and last to disembark at Uig.

Leaving Tarbert

Rolling out in Uig, it was definitely warmer than on Harris. We shed some of our outer layers and set off down the road. Our destination was the Lochbay B&B, on the Waternish peninsula, and we’d booked a table at the nearby Lochbay Seafood Restaurant at 6.30 pm, so we didn’t want to hang around!

The road out of Uig climbs a fair bit to a vew point that gives splendid views back down to Uig harbour, but rather than pausing we pressed on down the road with the Cuillins ever present directly ahead.

The ever present Cuillins

About 12 miles down the road, we turned down a singletrack B road before rejoining on A road in the direction of Dunvegan. After Edinbane we had the longest climb of the day, and it was here that we realised we were really over dressed, as by now we were riding under blue skies and bathed in sunshine. The climb dragged on and on as we got hotter and hotter, but eventually we reached some respite in the descent at the other side.

Waternish, Skye. Sunny at last!

Then it was a pretty nice ride along a B road to Lochbay, where we were welcomed to the B&B by a cheery bloke mowing his lawn, who immediately made us a cup of tea.

After cleaning ourselves up and changing into some more respectable clothes, we wandered down to the seafood restaurant. We were there a bit before our reservation, so we sat outside in the Sunshine drinking beer – some beer from Ullapool for me (An Teallach), Fraoch heather ale for Carol -until our table was ready.

Sitting in the sun outside Lochbay Seafood Restaurant, Skye

Our food was excellent. Starters were oysters (me) and smoked salmon salad (Carol), and we both had Gigha halibut for main course. Desserts were equally good.

After this most excellent dinner, we wandered back to the B&B where after a brief chat with another guest, I lay down to read a book and promptly fell asleep!

And so to bed…

Day 6 – Waternish to Broadford

We woke to sunny conditions, which was good – and actually made a nice change.

Sunday started fine. Shame it didn’t stay that way.

We made an early start, riding back down the singletrack towards Dunvegan, though we bypassed Dunvegan itself via a delightful little uncategorised road. Unfortunately this was where the day’s rain began, spitting at first, then a bit more persistent.

We saw the broch near Struan (Dun Beag), with lots of people on it, but it was far enough from the road that we didn’t want to get even wetter walking over to it.

Despite the dampening weather, we remained cheerful and when an opportunity arose to stop and make a cup of coffee at a viewpoint layby, we grabbed our chance. Sadly we attracted the attention of the first midges of our trip, and consequently drank our coffee while pacing around trying to avoid them. We must have made an odd sight to passing motorists! It did seem that the midges were attracted to the tandem – presumably it looks like the dark mass associated with a large animal!

Pressing on along some climbs and descents, we were getting ever closer to the Cuillins, eventually reaching Sligachan where we stopped at the Hotel bar for a cup of tea and a bowl of Soup (Cuillin skink, their variant on cullen skink – it was very good).

Thus refuelled, we pushed on into brightening weather. Instead of staying on the main road that climbs past Glamaig, we took a lovely little road from the Skye golf course and past some fish farms. The road got pretty bad as we rode along, but we made it safely to rejoin the main road. At times, it was a bit like steering the tandem in narrow bits of tarmac between vast potholes, while at others the road surface appeared to have been stripped back in preparation for a subsequently abandoned resurfacing. Still, it’s a lovely road with good views. I was glad of the 2″ tyres, though!

View from the “rough wee road”

From there, it was a straightforward run down to Broadford. We paused for a coffee at the newly renamed Cafe Sia (it has a wood pizza oven) before moving on to find the B&B – Sea Cottage. This accomplished, we wandered out to see about dinner. We eventually settled on the Harbour Restaurant (El Puerto), which offers a Spanish take on local seafood. We both had a Squid starter – I had sea bass for main, cooked in a fruity sauce, and a classic Catalan dessert. And beer partly made from oats.

Day 7 – Broadford to Acharacle

We had another cooked breakfast, but this time we got to eat our breakfast  while watching a sea otter breakfasting on crabs! (The breakfast room had a huge bay window looking out onto rocks and the sea, and was equipped with a telescope). Apparently British ‘sea otters’ are actually the same species as the freshwater otters, as opposed to the distinct sea otter species found in America.

Once we were all packed, we set off for Armadale. Carol was still feeling a bit groggy with the cold she’d picked up somewhere en route, and I was feeling like I had (probably inevitably) caught it too.

We left Broadford feeling reasonably OK, and rode across the road through bare hillside, then down into and up out of lovely wooded areas – we could hear cuckoos. We kept an eye out for sea otters, though the patterns of the last 20 years in which we had never seen one reasserted themselves after this morning’s triumph!

Arriving at Armadale in plenty of time for the Mallaig ferry, I sat in a cloud of DEET in the outdoor seats of the cafe talking to a succession of people who one by one got beaten of by the midgies. I fed crumbs to an astonishingly tame robin. The crossing is pretty quick, around 40 minutes, and when we arrived at Mallaig I popped into the ticket desk and bought a second Hopscotch ticket (for Lochaline-Fishnish and Craignure-Oban).

On up the road, and we set about the succession of climbs and descent with some resignation. The good weather was seemingly about to revert to showers. We stopped in a layby to heat up some food and coffee/tea, but couldn’t linger as the rain began, and the midgies attacked. By the right turn at Lochailort, the rain had become rather persistent, and would continue like this as we rode along the side of Loch Ailort itself.

My favourite road sign – “Watch out for elephants on the road”

At the end of the loch, there’s a steep old climb that takes one over to Moidart, where we camped on out first ever cycle touring trip (just a weekend trip).

A few more hills, and we reached Acharacle, which lies is a delightful and lush area bounded by hills. By this time the weather had eased a bit, so we were actually quite dry when we checked into the Loch Shiel Hotel. This two star hotel is just under new management, and is very cheerfully staffed,with quite a bit of renovation work ongoing.

We drank beers in the bar (chatted to a bloke from Barra who’d tried to set up a campsite in Barra only to have several successive caravans blow to pieces), and had dinner.

Since it was tipping it down most of the day, I took only a few photographs.

Day 8 – Acharacle to Oban

A nice day at last! The weather forecasts were for pretty much wall to wall sun, at least until we were likely to reach Oban to collect the car. We planned to catch the 12.45pm Lochaline to Fishnish ferry, then the 3.00pm Craignure-Oban ferry. This would mean that we’d be hanging around at Craignure for a bit, but the next Lochaline ferry wasn’t until 2.45pm (it would seem ferry men need a lunchbreak!). This schedule worried Carol, who was by now in the grip of a nasty cold and said her legs felt all wobbly. Oh, and symptoms were gaining fast on me too…

Out of the hotel, and up a whole series of climbs, some big, some steep, all strength sapping. Through Salen at the base of the Ardnamurchan peninsula and over to Loch Sunart. The scenery was delightful, with a particularly idyllic campsite over at Resipole. On along past Loch Sunart, and the road got flatter and flatter as we approached Strontian (the village where the element Strontium was discovered, in a mineral known as strontianite). Through Strontian, and we could see the big climb we were going to have to get over in order to reach Lochaline. All too soon, we were heading up.

Fortunately, I’d got a bit of a grip on which Rohloff gears to use for this sort of stuff. Too low, and it’s hard to balance, particularly when cars pass on singletrack. Too high, and you don’t get anywhere! This climb was hot work, particularly with a sick stoker (who did really very well). Once on the top, there’s a welcome descent, before the road rises again, though much less savagely than before. One of the problems with this road is that there can be quite a bit of motor traffic over to Lochaline and back which interferes with setting up a decent rhythm, and can make one rather anxious about meeting the ferry departure time.

The last 8 miles or so to Lochaline are again delightful – varied landscape with lots of wooded riverside fields and meadows. We reached Lochaline quite quickly, and could see the 11.45am ferry about to load passengers. We quickly zoomed to the front of the motor queue along with a large number of middle aged german blokes on motorcycles. So we got on the ferry before the motorists who’d pushed past us on the climbs! Minutes later, we were on the way over to Mull.

We may have been the first on the ferry, but we were the last off – just as well, since there’s an uphill road from the Fishnish jetty to the road! It’s only 5.6 miles to Craignure, and these mile ticked by quite quickly. Indeed, we reached Craignure in time for the 1pm ferry – only having to wait a few minutes before boarding with the other dozen cyclists (and before the cars).

40 minutes later, we rolled out into Oban, grabbed some lunch and collected the car for the drive south…

We spent most of the day chasing ferries, so didn’t stop to take pictures. This was the only day I caught some sun.