![]() I am content to return through Port Charlotte to Bowmore (another distillery) for lunch, before cycling on quiet roads back to Port Askaig, for the ferry to Jura, choosing not to visit Port Ellen, having cycled there during my LEJOG Atlantic route in 2018. I have heard of a day cycle route challenge to visit each of them and sample a dram. Waking with the dawn sunrise, I pack before any midges find me in the still air and cycle the backroads to Portnahaven, passing Bruichladdich distillery – one of eight active locations on Islay producing some of the worlds finest single malt whisky. Spoilt for choice, I found a pitch in the dunes and settled in for the night – the day punctuated with a clear evening sunset over the incoming tide, the silence so intense I can only hear my thoughts. I was not planning on doing high mileages, so I settled into a relaxed pace to seek out a wild camping spot around Loch Gruinart. Over spring and summer, I had been using my Thorn Audax for casual day cycling, so it is a shock to be pedalling a fully laden Sherpa up the initial steep climb out of Port Askaig. With only 30-minutes until boarding, I hastily packed four panniers with full wild camping gear and food and pushed the heavy bike on to MV Finlaggan, the first of 25 ferries I would board in the coming weeks. Why not combine the use of my campervan with a bicycle and explore the Southern Hebrides, wild camping on the larger islands, or simply taking a day trip? With no fixed plan, other than to start in the south, I set off north in my campervan with thunderbird pack 2: full cycling camping gear and my faithful Thorn Sherpa touring bike.Īfter an overnight stop in Moffat, I reached Kennacraig, on the Kintyre peninsula in time for the ferry to Islay. The Mountain Bothies Association had closed all bothies, which together with complicated accommodation bookings at critical resupply point meant I had to abandon my plans to walk the Scottish National Trail in 2020. I always had an idea to go island hopping in the Hebrides, with the condition that they had to be served by public ferries, usually Caledonian MacBrayne. Pembrokeshire Coast Path / Llwybr Arfordir Penfro. ![]() Wales Coast Path / Llwybr Arfordir Cymru.Walking, Cycling, more walking and cycling – it is addictive
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