| That’s the short story about our trip to Scotland in September 1999.
We decided to avoid the tourist hordes even if the price to pay would be the rain….
But we were lucky: we've seen only few midges, those legendary ferocious beasts, we had
many sunny days and only three really rainy ones (out of 10) althought it was the end of
summer. |
Creazy as we are, we decided to go on bikes. We bring them on the plane in
bags: everything except sleeping bags and fore-bags went into one bag (per bike) and we
were just in the limit of luggage weight for British Airways: 23kg.
Arrived to Inverness, we went through the Glenn Affric up to Isle of Skye, then take a
ferry to Outer Hybrides, cycled back to Inverness, took a train to Edinborough, then went
to Isle of Mull and back to Inverness. If we had 3 days more we could go to the Orkneys... |
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Creazy as we are, we decided to go on bikes. We bring them on the plane in
bags: everything except sleeping bags and fore-bags went into one bag (per bike) and we
were just in the limit of luggage weight for British Airways: 23kg.
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| Arrived to Inverness, we went through the Glenn Affric up to Isle of Skye,
then take a ferry to Outer Hybrides, cycled back to Inverness, took a train to
Edinborough, then went to Isle of Mull and back to Inverness. If we had 3 days more we
could have gone to Orkneys... |
Glenn Affric wasn't a wise choice… It was relatively easy to arrive
to the hut in the "middle" of the glenn (a land-rover track) but the further way
was a hell because we had to carry our bikes. The Affric river was a real river and we had
to cross a quite deep stream.
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Just after there were two abandoned houses and we slept in one of them. |
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There are three valleys at the west-end of the glenn and the left one
seems to be the easiest (info:Mb.Rogers@btinternet.com)
BUT we couldn't climb it with our bikes: it was too steep. We took the front one. Some
rain... some sunshine... lot od wind in the night. We walked up to the hut in Gleann Lichd
where we read the frightening stories about midges, water, and so on. The descent was the
worst: just leading the bikes I think I used completely nearly new brakes! |
The difficulty was recompensed by the absolute loneliness and beautiful
heather hills....
In the valley of Morvich the cyclable track started over again. There I took this cute
scottish cow (as interested in me as me in her!) |
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| We stayed in the Shiel Bridge camping and the next day took the road to
Skye. |
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The Donan castle was by the road. |
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On the bridge and the island roads we had very strong side wind. That was
very hard work. The north Skye is more inhabited than the south but some places were quite
romantic. |
| Arrived to Uig we were completely wet. Happily the port waiting room
was warm and the soup better than expected in the "Pub at the Pier". Ther we met
a Polish backpacker: for us he was as if a ghost; till then we saw only English or German
travellers...
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| As we took the ferry, it stopped raining and we had a
exeptional views at The Minch bay. I think these are the best photos of our trip. |
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At Tarbert we asked for a camping in the TIC: they advised us a wild
camping! So we drove away few miles and stayed in a place with a view at the bay. The
beautiful morning was a great recompense for "no shower today" night… |
| The south Lewis is beautiful, especially when the weather is
nice. Quite desert mountain, virtually no traffic, sheep on narrow excellent road. So we
arrived in the evening to Harris which is much less quiet. We stayed at the camping in
Stornoway. The ferry to the mainland was at 1 am or 14 pm....
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| The south Lewis is beautiful, especially when the weather is nice. Quite
desert mountain, virtually no traffic, sheep on narrow excellent road. So we arrived in
the evening to Harris which is much less quiet. We stayed at the camping in Stornoway. The
ferry to the mainland was at 1 am or 14 pm.... |
| Too lazy to move somewhere at midnight, we decided to jump to the west
coast of Harris to see the Calanich standing stones. We left our bags at the camping. One
way we took the B road which was quite busy. The weather was still great: not too hot, no
wind, sunny… So we took some photos. I studied in France in Britany and I've seen lot
of rock monuments but this one was special: on the hill with a cloudy view at bay...
Happily the tourists bus excursion arrived just after, so I was free to compose my
pictures! |
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| On the way back to Stornoway we found a small old road, through empty
hills of peat. Quiet cycling. Until we arrived to Stornoway where I made a great OTB,
landing my head in a van standing by the road. I had nothing but it would be an excellent
ad for a helmet company! |
| The crossing was less spectacular but still we had fun watching the big
and small islands flowing around us. The wind was very cold. The ferry arrived to Ullapool
at 4 pm. The crossing was less spectacular but still we had fun watching the big and small
islands flowing around us. The wind was very cold. The ferry arrived to Ullapool at 4 pm. |
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On the same day we biked in the direction of Inverness. The
night fell but the road wasn't busy and the weather OK. On the fields we saw the fog
appear. Few km later we stopped for the rest by "the best road toilets in
Scotland": hot water, dryer, cleaness, stainless steel! We've put our tent by a small
waterfall. |
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| Next day was beautiful but we approached Inverness so the paysage became
more agriculture affected, it was harvest time. In Inverness we bought 7 days illimited
travel tickets for ScottRail + Caledonian MacBrayne and booked places for our bikes:
we were going south, to Edinborough. As we arrived there at night we couldn't find the
camping: it is quite far from the town center, by the seaside. It is a VERY safe place...
barb-wire fence, cameras everywhere and guards with dogs....! We didn't like it at all. |
| When we visited the city, in fact we were a little dissapointed, maybe
because of heavy traffic everywhere or the quantity of tourists… or maybe the weather
was too nice? So on the same day we took a train to Glasgow (where we stayed 5 min, just
enough to take a photo...) and then another train to Oban. The camping was in quite remote
nice valley, and I remember to see a divers camp direction! |
| The ferry to the Mull island from Oban was leaving at 10 o'clock. On the
coast we had very nice sun, but as we approached the island it rained. The Duart Lochdon
castle appeard on the coast. The atmosphere was really scottish as we arrived to a
standing stones, somewhere in a very humid field. Not too far there was a mysterious tour
just by the beach. The weather wasn't great so we took the evening ferry back to Oban and
just as we arrived to the port we saw a very very beautiful sunset, so beautiful that many
people walked out of shops just to stare at the reddish-orange light wave... |
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After Mull we were on our way home: train to Fort William where we wanted
to see Ben Nevis but the weather was foggy and we didn't see it at all. And then a coach
to Inverness along the Loch Ness (with bikes dismounted). |
| This were 10 days of a unforgettable adventure. Close to the sun, rain,
wind, fog and very photogenic clouds. It was cold but we recall it very warm! |
