Getting ready for Scotland
New gear and training, training, training ...
Last year we cycled for 10 days in Cornwall, but at a relatively relaxed pace (although some sections were steep as hell), on tarmac and with a glorious weather. It was a fantastic holiday, but we took it easy because Oscar was only 1 year old. I rode my old Specialized mountain bike and Melanie had a lightweight CUBE hybrid bike (which was stolen since 😭 ). Good bikes, but definitely not suitable for long distance touring.
This year we bought 2 brand new Niner RLT9 gravel bikes from Mike Allenby at Stage1Cycle in the heart of the Yorkshire Dales. We were supposed to get them in April/May 2020, but COVID-19 happened. Long story short, Mike managed to get the 2 Niner framesets during the lockdown and assembled the bikes with the components we wanted. As soon as the lockdown was lifted in June, we swiftly drove up to collect our bikes and explored the stunning Yorkshire Dales National park. Since then we rode pretty much every weekend progressively increasing the distance, technical difficulty and load.
We also "trained" Oscar to get used to spend time in his tout-terrain trailer. And it payed off. He is now happy to stay entire days harnessed in the trailer, singing, asking hundreds of questions or just observing nature quietly. We just need to have a small break every 1 or 2 hours, so he can burn his energy by running around, screaming and chasing birds (or anything else that moves really).
Itinerary overview
The Hebridean way was on our list of mythical route to ride for quite some time. But, the north coast of Spain was also quite high on that list... Well, at least COVID19 helped us to decide where to go for our first big cycle touring adventure. Our planned itinerary starts from the city of Stirling, easily accessible by train and will get us through the magical lochs of the Trossachs before reaching Oban. From there we will board a ferry to the little island of Barra. For nearly a week, we will cycle North through Eriksay, South and North Uist, Benbecula, Grimsay, Berneray and finally Lewis and Harris. Then we will cross the sea back to the mainland in Ullapool and will slowly make our way to Inverness, where our tour will end. Well at least that's our plan...
COVID-19 means planning everything
It's not our habit but because of COVID-19 we decided to plan most of the nights. It was particularly hard to find accommodations on the Hebrides where pretty much everything is still closed for business until 2021 or already fully booked months in advance. Overall, the Hebrides managed quite well to keep the virus out and people are still reluctant to reopen the islands to mainland tourists. At the end of the day we managed to book 9 out of 14 nights, leaving just a few nights for wild camping or last minute B&B. We planned a couple of nights in a beautiful cottage on Lewis, roughly in the middle of the trip so we can rest a bit to recharge our batteries.
Scotland, here we come !
