2006 - Lochcarron

In 2006, we decided to have as change from touring, and rented a cottage in Lochcarron (View Map) on the west coast of Scotland, taking the tandem and one of my solo bikes. A chief attraction (for me, at least) was that the famous climb over to Applecross (Bealach-na-Ba) was a short ride away. This worked out more social, as our friends Will and Cath were staying within reasonable range for a walking trip. Additionally, the weather turned out on some days to be completely disgraceful!

Day One - arrival

Day Two - Sunday - Bealach na Ba and Plockton

Day Three - Monday - Torridon

Day Four - Tuesday - Bealach na Ba (again)

Day Five - Wednesday - vile weather and no cycling

Day Six - Thursday - Glenelg and Skye

Day Seven - Friday - Shieldaig and home

Day One - Saturday

We arrived in Lochcarron at about 3.30pm, after a car journey taken in two stages. As previously arranged, we collected the keys to the cottage from the Rockvilla Hotel in the village. Somewhat ominously, it rained steadily all evening. Fortunately we had popped out to buy some coal from the local shop.

Day Two - Sunday - Bealach na Ba and Plockton

I woke early, and got the solo bike out (I had brought along a solo road bike as well as the tandem) with the intention of taking an early morning trip up Bealach na Ba, which is possibly one of the more famous climbs in Scotland. We had previously taken the tandem over heading east (from Applecross to Tornapress, which might be considered to be the easier direction - see the 2003 Tour), this time I planned to ride over to Tornapress, ride to the top, then retrace back to the cottage.

Fortunately the overnight rain had stopped, though the roads remained very wet. After exiting Lochcarron (up a surprisingly steep gradient) the ride over to Tornapress past Kishorn was pretty quick, and before long I had turned off the main road and was looking up the slopes rather nervously. At this point, I could already see that the top of the climb was shrouded in low cloud. There was a stiff headwind in the early stages.

I beagn quite briskly in 39x17, but as the gradient steepened I was really quite glad of my 39x23 bottom gear! The road curves round the hillside, and actually the worst parts were concealed from me by the clouds and as I moved up the hill and into it, I lost all visibility. I could actually barely see even the road. Just before the top, the road rears up very steeply, then there are a few very tight hairpin turns (I recalled these from the tandem trip, when a lorry took a many, many point turn to get round them!) which gave me some warning that the top was near. I reckoned I'd got there when the road levelled and seemed to begina descent.

Once at the top, I put on my racing cape and prepared to descend. The descent and return to Lochcarron was pretty uneventful, though i did take it quite cautiously in those parts where visibility was atrocious. So, how was the climb? Well, firstly it was a huge shame that I could see so little from the top. Secondly, as long as you are prepared for the long haul and don't go at it too fast, it seems quite manageable. At one point I had to stop to let an oncoming car through, and getting started again on the steep sections is quite difficult because getting your speed up high enough to clip in to the pedals isn't easy! The steep section before the hairpins is a bit of an eye-opener, and fair got my breathing labouring.

When I got back to the cottage, I had second breakfast and got the tandem ready for a jaunt over to Plockton (famous for the TV series Hamish Macbeth). The trip started by riding down Stratchcarron, then eastwards along the south side of Loch Carron. This road was just as hard as I remembered it from previous tours (but at least we had very little luggage with us this time). Unusually, we had some minor mechanical problems - we pulled the rear wheel over at one point, and had a chainring bolt come loose - it had to be retrieved from the road at one point!). Apart from those, the trip to Plockton was uneventful, and we whizzed down into the village. We did stop at the cafe at the station, but did not appear to open until 12.00 - this was at 11.30 - so we proceeded down into the village, where we rolled gently along, soaking in the sights, and visiting art galleries.

Plockton (see picture) is one of those pretty villages down on west coast sea lochs and which exist in a sort of micro-climate that results in a rather incongruous appearance. We cycled back up the hill to the railway station, only to discover that the cafe was in fact closed all day on Sunday. Rather that trail back down the hill again, we chose to make our way back to Lochcarron. During this trip we became aware of two things - firstly the midgies were out in force and a second chainring bolt came out!

Back at the Cottage, we got cleaned up, and had a light lunch, before fixing the tandem. Shortly after that, the rain began, and kept on steadily. We ate dinner at the Rockvilla (langoustines for me, crab salad for Carol), washed down with Rockvilla ale, which is made by the Isle of Skye Breweries). And so to bed, after looking nervously at the weather!

26.4 miles (Bealach na Ba) and 36.65 miles, 3:17:35 (Plockton)

Day Three - Monday - Torridon

It rained intermittently all night, but it had pretty much stopped by the time I got up at 6am. Unfortunately, my early morning optimism was let down by the steady light rain that had begun by about half past seven. I popped outside and repaired the chainset on the tandem. After breakfast we nipped down the road to the grocery shop to pick up some food for the day's ride, then back to the cottage to get the bike ready. We had planned to ride over to Shieldaig, through Torridon and return via Achnasheen - with the possibility of turning back before the halfway point if the weather got particularly bad.

Of course, the weather did close in as we left the village, and we climbed out by Kishorn in quite heavy rain. The road over the Shieldaig was quite hard, and rather depressing in the gloom - we couldn't see any of Bealach na Ba throught he low cloud and rain. We stopped briefly in the lee of a hut on the hillside to eat a snack bar before pressing on to Shieldaig, where we arrived about noon. We decided not to stop, but pushed on to Torridon.

At Torridon, we sheltered under the veranda of a Countryside office and ate our sandwiches (and fighting off midgies as best we could), while talking to a (rather damp) guy who was camping further up Glen Torridon. We saw this chap driving on another day. Cycling up Glen Torridon was a bit of an improvement - the midgies can't get you when you're cycling, and anyway, the rain had pretty much stopped.

After a bit, the road stopped rising, and we had a lovely descent down to Kinlochewe. Unfortunately the next section was the most unpleasant of the route (which despite the rain had been very enjoyable!). Because of major road "improvements" from singletrack, a huge amount of earth moving was being done - we were slithering around on muddy roads, dodging enormous JCBs. Still, the new road was smooth, and we made rapid progress up a long gentle incline - followed naturally enough by lovely long descent to Achnasheen, where we stopped at the visitor centre for tea and cakes.

From Achnasheen back to Lochcarron was a bout 21 miles of undemanding cycling, with a mixed bag of scenery. A rising headwind made this leg harder than it ought to have been, and we were pleased to get back. In the evening, we paid attention to the weather forecast - it looked pretty bleak for Tuesday. Will and Cath phoned, and we agreed to meet in Broadford on Skye.

Day Four Tuesday - Bealach na Ba (again)

As per usual, I woke up early, at 5am. No sign yet of the ghastly weather - so I had a quick breakfast and nipped out on the solo bike to see how Bealach na Ba was with better visibility. It was trip well worth doing - the views from the summit were glorious. On the way back to Lochcarron, I paused at the Kishorn Seafood bar to look at the menu (lots of seafood, naturally), and found it had totally bizarre opening hours, 10am to 5pm!

The weather looked to be closing in as we set off to Broadford by car.

Day Five - Wednesday - vile weather and no cycling

I woke at 6am after a disturbed night during which the storm blew through. Looking out of the window, it was grey and murky. The wind was blowing in from the sea, and along the loch, whipping up froths of white on the waves. Oh, and it was raining hard. This was not good for a day's cycling. It did not improve. We drove over to Plockton (looked at some galleries), then on to Kyle of Lochalsh, where I bought some nuts and bolts to repair the car roof rack (they turned out not to fit, when we got back to Lochcarron). Back in Lochcarron, we popped in to the Waterside cafe for a brie and bacon buttie, before going back to the cottage.

There were a few vaguely hopeful sunny spells, but over all the weather stayed atrocious - we even got completely drenched getting to the Rockvilla and back for dinner.

Day Six - Thursday - Glenelg and Skye

Well, no surprise - it was still raining when I woke at about 6.15am, though in fact the weather forecast was one of improvement - broken rain/showers. Indeed, the rain eventually eased, and we decided to cycle over to visit the Glenelg brochs. Before we set out, I nipped over to the Lochcarron garage and scrounged thenuts and bolts needed to repair the roof rack.

We drove round the loch, parked above Stromeferry, set up the bike and rode off towards the A87 - quite a bit of climbing followed by a terrific long sweeping descent to the main road. We'd worried about the traffice there, as the A87 is a trunk road, though in fact it turned out to be OK.

As we approached Shiel Bridge, we could see a little road winding its way up the hillside on the other side of the loch - this turned out to be our planned route. When we began the ascent, the road had a distinctly alpine feel to it, as it hair-pinned up through trees. We did have to stop, but only to allow a logging lorry to pass, and later to take some photos back down the climb. From the summit, there's a long fast descent (unfortunately it was drizzling) down to Glenelg. A combination of speed and loose sheep made this interesting...  We had a small amount of drizzle on the descent, but we soon dried off.

At Galltair the road forks, and we took the left road over to Glenelg (the right turn goes off to the ferry - see later), and cycled round the coast and a few miles up the next glen to look at the two brochs.  These tuned out to be in rmarkably good shape for mainland brochs, and were set along a very green and leafy road.  We stopped there for some sandwiches, which proved amusing as we had to avoid the over-enthusiastic sheep that expected to eat our food.  After clambering up to the second broch (rather pleasingly named Dun Trodden, believe it or not!) we rode onwards, looking for a further site, Dun Grugaig.  Unfortunately the road just petered out in a farmyard, so we turned back.

We retraced our route to Glenelg, then took the turn down to the Kylerea ferry. 

Day Seven - Friday - Shieldaig and home