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Day 2 Tuesday 25th May - Barra

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35.6 miles We woke to beautiful sunny morning. The breakfast room looked out twards Kisimul Castle in the bay. We got set up, planning to spend the day exploring Barra and Vatersay - we took the Trangia and the bits'n'bobs for a drum up and lunch. Fortunately we also packed some extra clothing, as the temperature dropped steadily through the morning, as the cloud grew ominously (consistent with the last weather forecast we'd seen which was for light rain). We'd hoped to have a brewup on the beach at Vatersay, but contented ourselves with a stroll - something repeated during the other beach visits today! The beaches on Barra and Vatersay are nothing short of splendid, as are the dunes behind, with displays of primroses and many other flowers, though the yellow flag irises had yet to bloom. From Vatersay we retraced our path back to the B&B, then on to the main circular road round Barra. This proved delightful, if still quite cold and windy - the clouds seemed to be breaking up. We stopped occasionally to admire views and beaches, but still felt too cold for lunch. At the north of this loop, weturned north, investigating where the Ardmhor ferry terminal was, then on to the Barra airport - the landing strip is thehuge Cockle Strand beach - where we stopped for soup and tea. This was most welcome as we were pretty cold by then. Further north to Eoligarry, where we walked onto arocky beach with terrific rock pools. From there we retraced to the circular road and headed back to Castlebay, pausing occasionally to admire the views. The Cuillins in Skye were clearly visible. Back in Castlebay, we changed, had a cup of tea, then wanered into Castlebay. We photographed Kisimul Castle from a number of vantage points (apparently Castelbay was the model for Kiltoch and Kisimul for the Black Island in Tintin and the Black Island). A fabulous pint of McEwans 80/- in the Castlebay Hotel bar was followed by dinner at the Cafe Kisimul, which specialises in Indian, Italian and seafood. I had scallop pakora and spaghetti marinara (combining all the specialities, I thought) washed down with a bottle ofHebridean Breweries' Islander ale. Carol had the same starter and followed with Jaipuri prawns. Then back to the B&B. We saw loads of birds, including many we couldn't identify - skylarks, herons, hooded crows. Many starlings. Heard a cuckoo.
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Day 1 Monday 24th May Arrival in Barra

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After a staged journey via Leeds and two nights in Edinburgh (and along the way buying and replacing the tandem's chainset, we departed first thing in the morning for Oban. As per usual, we transported then tandem by car on the roof rack. The journey was pretty easy, with no delays and rather pleasant and sunny weather (but a little cooler than over the last few days).
We arrived in Oban about 3.5h before the ferry was due to depart - even after leaving the car in the tender care of Hazelbank Motors, buying tickets (Island Hopscotch tickets 15 and 21), and having coffee we ended up hanging around. Despite the brilliant sunshine, the temperature was falling by the time we queued up with a surprising number of cyclists to board the ferry. On this occasion, cyclists were boarded first. The ferry departed on schedule, and after a voyage of 4:50 that took us along the Sound of Mull (Tobermory clearly seen in the afternoon sunshine) and beyond. We arrived in Castlebay on schedule. We were a bit surprised by how cold it was as we rolled off to find our B&B (Ravenscroft).
From our window, we had a great view across the bay, with Kisimul Castle lit by rays of sunshine.
Pretty soon, though, we turned in - looking forward to exploring Barra tomorrow. But not optimistic about the weather!

Blargh! Tandem crisis!

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So, I refurbished the transmission on the tandem before our cycling holiday, and on the evening before we're due to head north, I discover a serious problem with the chainset, and the thing needs to be replaced...the main (right hand) drive crank is seriously mangled and isn't in line with left hand crank. The granny ring also now strikes the chain stay. Cue phone conversation with the excellent Spa Cycles of Harrogate, and I've arranged to collect a Stronglight Impact tandem chainset en route to Edinburgh tomorrow.

Stony '11.4' 19/5/10

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Another lovely sunny evening for a North Bucks Road Club evening time trial, and a return to the Stony Stratford course for another counting round in the club league.  There was also a gentle breeze that promised to toughen the outward leg.  Oh, and a profusion of greenfly in the air! There was quite a bit of discussion as to whether we should use the replacement Nash-Whaddon circuit, as on our previous event at Stony Stratford when the course was affected by roadworks.  In the end, we decided to go with the usual course, as riders who'd ridden the course earlier in the week said the road was clear enough (and so it proved).  What was more worrying was the comments that travellers had caused problems near the turn on Monday, with kids playing 'chicken' with the riders as they passed. After a slightly delayed start occasioned by a parade of sports cars and a group of horses, we were off.  For my part, I found the outward leg really very tough.  The first few miles are quite twisty, and the winter has most certainly not been kind to the road, with even more potholes added to the existing unrepaired road defects near Beachampton.  Dodging the potholes, I reached Beachampton and began the climb up to Nash.  I really suffered on the final stages to Nash (probably I need to lose a bit of weight to improve my power to weight ratio!).  In Nash a motorist had kindly parked on the bend, leaving their car door wide open while they looked at the back end of their car.  Avoiding this stellar parking act (and hoping that other riders, and indeed passing motorists would too), I pressed on up to the turn.  A clear ride round the turn and off on the return leg, where I felt I wasn't reaching the usual speed on the first section back to Nash.  Once through Nash the speed was up well over 40mph at times - though tempered with concern over bends in the road and assorted road defects to come. I roared through Beachampton and on over the twists, turns and astonishing potholed surfaces, putting a big effort to cross the line in 27:19.  This was better than I'd felt I was doing, but I really need to work on the climbing!  On the other hand, it was faster than any ride I did on this course last year. Results
Pos. on
Pos No Name Club Time Cat Vets Std .+ / - Vets Std
1 10 Tony Parks NBRC 26.23 V45 30.29 .+ 4.06 4
2 15 David Glossy Team Corley Cycles 26.29 S
3 7 Chris Dunwoodie TeamMK 27.00 S
4 13 Robert Saunders NBRC 27.19 V50 31.41 .+ 4.22 3
5 14 Glenn McMenamin NBRC 27.35 S
6 8 Will Hilton Virgin Active 28.06 S
7 5 Brian Primett NBRC 29.12 V43 30.01 .+ 0.49 6
8 11 Aleck Hornshaw TeamMK 30.18 V41 29.33 .- 0.45 8
9 6 Clive Faine TeamMK 30.22 V63 35.05 .+ 4.43 2
10 9 John Buchanan TeamMK 30.27 V40 29.20 .- 1.07 9
11 3 Gilbert Wheelwright NBRC 31.24 V67 36.13 .+ 4.49 1
12 4 Christine White NBRC 33.01 LV45 32.26 .- 0.35 7
13 2 Gordon Batcock NBRC 33.27 V69 36.48 .+ 3.21 5
14 1 Alan Lawson NBRC 33.29 V41 29.33 .- 3.56 10
Tandem
16 Kevin Stokes TeamMK 25.08
Geoff Perry TeamMK
And here's a map of the course (note that the northern end of the course has an additional section including a return to the car park).
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What is the UK best at?

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Courtesy of Information is Beautiful, we now find out what the UK is best at (Because Every Country Is The Best At Something). So, where Madagascar is best at vanilla, the Netherlands is best at Ecstasy, and Estonia is best at Adult Literacy, what is the UK best at? CCTV Oh crap!

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