Forum menu
Well I'm reading this I bed and it's great to see someone have fun and genuinely be pleased to share.
Superb.
Great stuff.
Brilliant read with great pics. Thanks!
Threads like this remind me that I need to get out more.
Great stuff!
Loved reading this!! Thanks mate!
Excellent. Thanks for that.
Just the type of trip I aim to start doing again, need to pull my finger out and get my bike rigged out for tripping asap.
Cheers.
Thanks for posting that. Nice trip and set of photos. I did think your Glen Tanar plan sounded a bit optimistic!
You were unlucky with the midge. They've been mostly absent this year and only seem to have been turning up in numbers the past 3-4 weeks.
You've got me interested in another C2C now so I might steal some of that route.
From what I can see of the pics on my ridiculously slow internet connection, that looks fantastic!
brilliant that.
Ace, just ace. Thanks for sharing.
Just lovely,
Thanks for sharing.
Thanks that's inspired me, great stuff.
Fabulous!
Thanks for posting 😀
Good post there TR.
Fantastic read. Inspiring stuff that has got me thinking I need to have my own adventure!
Looked a cracking ride. Had a good mini tour myself last month, going to try and get a knobbly tyre one in next year. Looks like you were quite lucky with the weather too considering where you were. That makes a massive difference.
Thanks for taking the effort with the photos, enjoyed the read.
Absolute pleasure to read...and to think I've bottled out of doing the STW this month as it's "too late in the year now" 🙁
Loved it. Good stuff, fella. Strangely I didn't have any bother at all when I was at Glen Affric. Tbf, it was February...
Goodstuff TR...well done
That's a great ride TR - must have been TD-1 season on the Corrieyairack.
I did it a week ago - following the military road Kingussie to Dores via the pass. Bit sketchy on Big Apples, but made up for it on the road.
[url= https://farm1.staticflickr.com/712/21304275966_639885f62d_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm1.staticflickr.com/712/21304275966_639885f62d_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url]
That section down to the gate draws blood. 🙂
Great stuff, I'm just researching a 3 to 4 day trip myself and glad to have come across this.
Wasn't gonna bother with bike luggage and ship stuff ahead, but this may have convinced me otherwise...
Thoroughly enjoyed that!
A decent undertaking, an interesting route, some great scenery and a cracking read.
Thanks for posting.
Good stuff. I did it the other way - Montrose to Skye at the end of July. I did it that way against all advice (and very glad I did - arriving at the west is definitely best). I didn't do your route around the Cairngorms. For me it was the grind down Glen Geldie to Feshie, however I did that Cairngorm route as part of a longer bike packing + munros trip two weeks before.
I also ate some odd food from the Shiel Bridge garage but while sat on the bench outside the shop met some wonderful people also bike packing who made me change my plans and divert to a bothy after leaving the pub way too late. (that wasn't likely had I chosen to finish at Montrose).
For future reference, Braemar chippy does generous amounts of Stornoway black pudding.
I like these types of posts. I had been thinking of doing a post from my coast to coast (one of four in different places across Scotland this year) but I still haven't put all the photos up on facebook yet.
Which braemar chippies that ? The hungry highlander ? Looked and smelt like an indian when i went through 🙁 although it was 10pm on a thursday night....i would have eaten my left foot at that point after being disapointed with the tackle on offer at the old firehouse.
I nearly did east-west but decided the pressure of having to make a certain train wasnt worth it, having been stuck on the west coast waiting on the next train in the pishing rain at 7am before.......my parents live in arbroath if all went to rat shit near the end as well 🙂
that's a cracking trip, good work!
now tell me, where can you get OS maps with the relief shading?
Great Photos and write up.
Trailrat
How many hours did it take you from kyle of loch alsh to The hostel
And how many from hostel to great glen way
im hoping to do kyle to inverness
cheers ,
Strava says 5hrs from kyle to hostel.
and 5hrs also from hostel to fort augustus although i did stop at the cafe in tomich for a feed.
Edit - sorry thats moving time... a more useful estimation of time would be i got off the train at kyle at mid day and i was in the hostel at 18:00
and the next day i started at 8.30 and was in fort augustus at 3pm
makes planning a bit easier with that info
cheers
Maddy
Holy thread resurrection.
But thank you - I had forgotten about this one!
mee too matt , seems like so long ago. Im currently on a clerk of works(wife) mandated DIY spree. Im in the painting phase of a total replaster of the hall , stairs , upstairs hall and both upstairs bedroom. Spent all weekend putting 4 coats of paint on the roof. only the hall walls still to do. - although to be fair she has been patient - i did the rewire 3 years ago.
Then its - skirtings , carpets , hang the door , refix all the electrics back to the wall ....
then i may get out on my bike again 🙁
trail_rat - Member
...Then its - skirtings , carpets , hang the door , refix all the electrics back to the wall ....then i may get out on my bike again
That's good, we need another epic from you. 🙂
good, too - you've been part of my inspiration to look at doing more 'stuff' that I simply enjoy 🙂
Thats a dangerous game calum.
Before you know it you will have, torn your house apart l rebuilt a car , ridden your bike on laps and laps of the cairngorms .
Anyway - its not been all work and no play.
This happened at easter.
For a few years we have been talking about touring skye on the bikes how ever - weather and midge have always put us off....
We sucked up the weather this year and just got on with it.
We opted to park the motors in glenelg as public transport to the west coast with a tandem and trailer is not a stress free option.
[img] 
[/img]
Stayed in the ratagan YHA the first night - highly recomended , nestled under the 5 sister.
took the ferry over to kylerhea
[img] 
[/img]
Some of you may recognise the chap (in bike gear not the ferry dude) on the left if you ever ride in the a9 corridor.
[img] 
[/img]
the horror climb out which killed the granny ring on the tandem in 50 yards
[img] 
[/img]
a rather scenic pee ....
[img] 
[/img]
looking over the south of skye
day 1 finished in glen brittle - after a visit to the talisker distilelry , the old inn and a puncture on the alfine 8 day one .....
day 2 - brewing my coffee and this little guy came to visit.
[img] 
[/img]
the campsite in the light - the big tents were a godsend later in the week !
[img] 
[/img]
[img] 
[/img]
The view out from glenbrittle - and if any of you have been there you will know about the only way out of glenbrittle...so we had a half way break and walked up to the fairy pools....
[img] [/img]
Which then meant a midday start for dunvegans lunch stop.....not our best move.
[img] 
[/img]
Check the flat top peaks , i love the features on skye !
[img] 
[/img]
Oatcakes , cheese and olives from the shop and washed down with some coffee from quite a rolly eyed coffeeshop serving slices of cake for 7 quid. didnt look too impressed at sweaty smelly cyclists bothering all the other (non existant) customers....
[img] 
[/img]
Climbing out of dunvegan heading for portree
[img] 
[/img]
Down tuther side heading for the portree bike shack 😀
[img] 
[/img]
Same road - but i just really like the definition of the shot......nothing i take photos of gets close to photoshop - im a lazy mofo plus i like to show em as i see em .
we took a right at carbost and headed for peiness..... where we met the shinty team running up from portree to teh pitches at peiness
[img] 
[/img]
[img] 
[/img]
Portree - not tobermory . thought id taken a wrong turn somewhere !
[img] 
[/img]
The view from our bog....i mean campsite...there wasnt a single dry place on the site..... so we pitched up at the top and enjopyed the view of the cuillins before heading down the hill to town for food....finding out almost everywhere had stopped serving..... trudged back to the tent after finding a feed and went to bed , only to be woken by horrendous wind and rain - and the sound of the other guys tent filling with water :S
The next morning we went to portree to find a hostel to dry out and rode out to the old man of storr while the camping kit dried.
[img] 
[/img]
its up there somewhere but as with most of skyes attractions they are weather dependant..... we were supposed to go to staffin but with the tandem getting blown ALLLLL over the road by gusting head and side winds it was decided we would head back .... during which we were greated by ....a headwind
[img] 
[/img]
the next morning we headed back to broadford to camp there ....or that was the plan.
[img] 
[/img]
[img] 
[/img]
We hit broadford about 11am - the plan had been to camp here and go to elgol - Jayne and the tandem via road and i would back track to sligachan and ride the sligachan path how ever sitting in cafe sia enjoying cake and coffee the tandem decided to head back over to glen elg while the winds were in their favour. We looked for a campsite in broadford. We found 1 that i swear was a trailer park/knackers yard - static vans and transits ahoy....and the next one in breakish had only hardstanding with little bits of uncut rocky grass and toilets/showers with a view (ie no doors) - im not fussy but the wife isnt into the nudest thing 😀
so we pushed on to kyle expecting a site there , met an old enlightened gentleman and asked him if he knew where there was a campsite near by..... We got his life story for about 40 minutes followed by a - yeah theres a campsite a couple miles that way..... before we knew it we were in dornie and standing in the boggy campsite :S
[img] 
[/img]
[img] 
[/img]
riding into the rain :S - wouldnt recomend the road from kyle to sheilbridge to anyone traffic soooo impatient.
[img] 
[/img]
Back under the shadow of the 5 sisters - opting to spend our last night back in the hostel rather than in the dampness of dornies finest campsite - with the leur of the food at the kintail arms after a longer than planned day 😀
[img] 
[/img]
full circle at the YHA again.
[img] 
[/img]
Riding home from the pub.
[img] 
[/img]
Good first trip for my new kona Rove AL, Bikes very comfy and loving dynamo power , right time of year to do it , not that bad weather , not too busy roads - but i will say the locals are nuts.... the bus , the bank and the libary all tried to kill us by overtaking on blind corners, several cars also and 1 van ran a car off the road overtaking us in a silly place. Some of the worst driving at speed ive seen in a while, ive seen worse driving but usually at low speeds in africa or something. Speed kills though.
Know a few folk from Skye, can attest to their utter lack of sense.
Thread is giving me itchy legs but like yourself I have an absolute ton of stuff to do in the house and garden before I'll get permission to go buggering off on a bike (might nick the Inbred rather than trying anything on my Trailstar 😕 )
Great read.. respect! want to do one similar now 🙂