I’ve done it twice. The event is really well organised with good feed stations. You’ll easily be able to jump on the back of a fast group & get a tow to Fort Augustus. If you’re used to the distance you’ll be fine with the cut-off. The strava segment for the hill up from Fort Augustus is 1300ft in 4.8 miles and includes a section of downhill.

Eggs Stornoway from Cafe Tioram in Acharacle. A cheese scone cut in half with a slice of Stornoway black pudding on each half. On top of each black pudding goes a poached egg with hollandaise sauce. A truly beautiful breakfast.

I think Tour of the Borders Sept 2025 is planned to be closed road but it’s only 120km.

We took the foot ferry with bikes and cycled round Rousay to visit Mid Howe Broch (chambered cairn). Yesnaby, on the west of mainland Orkney, MOAB’S rock bridge photo, I think, was worth a visit. Had a pint and bought some beer at Orkney brewery.

My daughter did her Masters in Glasgow and stayed in an expensive dark and damp basement flat in the West End. Doing a PhD in Edinburgh now but refused to leave Glasgow as she loves it so much. She now rents a 2 bed flat in Cardonald and her share is around £330 a month. She’d looked round Paisley and would have happily rented there. TLDR West End is lively and desirable for students but expensive!

<p style=”text-align: right;”>I took out GAP insurance for a non-financed used car. If the car is written off in the first 3 years the policy gives me the difference between the insurance payout and original purchase price. £110 for 3 years cover. Bought the policy from broker and not the Dealer.</p>

Cliff path is the nicer walk but has more up and down bits. Cinder Track goes inland and goes over a Viaduct over the River Esk with views down to Whitby. Doesn’t really matter whether you go North- South or vice versa.

School holidays the bus from RHB to Whitby can get busy. I’d get the bus out to RHB, spend some time fossil hunting on the beach between RHB and Boggle Hole and walk back either on the cliff path or the Cinder Track inland.

We didn’t go to Skarea Brae because of the pre-booking but instead went to Broch of Gurness (East of Evie), Brough of Birsay and the best one of all was Midhowe Tomb and Chambered Cairn on Rousay (got the ferry and cycled round the island).

Had a good walk at the sea cliffs & stacks at Yesnaby watching the climbers.

Bike and Boot would have been my suggestion as well. Bike and dog friendly but you’ll have to pay for parking I think. Crown Spa on South Cliff as also mentioned and they have a pool and a gym/spa. Raithwaite Hall just outside Whitby is nice but pricier.

I’ve canoed it with my daughter and another dad and daughter in a couple of open canoes a few years ago. Lovely trip. You could hire/buy a key for the toilets at the lock gates and you used to be able to camp at them as well and fill up with fresh water. We carried wooden spars and a dinghy spinnaker and rafted together and sailed down Loch Ness. We stayed on the south side of Loch Ness. There is a guide to the Canoe Trail that lists potential camping spots. We rented boats from Explore Highland.

The Cleveland Way or the Yorkshire Wolds Way are doable and accessible from Leeds. Partner and I did the Esk Valley Way, finishing in Whitby, for our 25th wedding anniversary. It was 3-4 days slow walking and lunches and overnights in pubs that had good food and beer.

I’ve used Shiply a few times for getting spare steel car wheels delivered & even a galvanised Defender bulkhead. It worked well each time & was a lot cheaper than booking a stand alone courier.

If you’ve got a nectar card you can use nectar points to buy a Kindle through Argos.

For the sell-out Autumn Internationals we got the train in from Linlithgow to Haymarket & walked from there. Going in earlyish the trains weren’t really that busy compared to the 67,000 in the stadium.

I took the Tracker off my Defender after a year & took out an agreed value insurance policy instead so that if it was stolen I’d get a decent payout.

I owned a group accommodation business on the Yorkshire for 15 years up to January 2020 & the majority of our non-schools business came from the Group Accommodation website as mentioned in an earlier post.

My dad was a silversmith who occasionally made jewellery and he took us to a stone dealer in the Brum jewellery quarter where we bought an opal and a couple of small sapphires. We’d talked with him about designs we liked and he made the 18 carat engagement ring and later our wedding rings. My mum used to teach dress-making and she made the wedding dress!

We went to Staffa with Staffatours this year from Fionnphort, very friendly and informative. We had about 90 minutes on Staffa. You get landed just along from Finals cave and there is a wire hand rail to help getting to it as the ground is uneven. We went during puffin season and spent more time watching them.

Arrived on Orkney

Yorkshire Cycle Hub, Great Fryup Dale, in the middle of the North York Moors have bunk rooms & a camping pod to hire.

I’d look for Portrush or Portstewart instead of Coleraine and there’s a cycle path between the two.

I’ve just had the same hunt for a 2×10 36t 104bcd & found some sram ones with Mantel at about £38 including postage. Ordered Sunday & dispatched yesterday.

If you just want to spin your legs you can’t go wrong with the Cinder Track. If you ride to Ravenscar you can get a drink in the hotel there before the return. A round trip from Whitby would be around 18 miles.
If you don’t mind driving, the Cyclehub in Fryupdale near Danby will give you routes.

I’ve got the Polar. It takes a while to detect satellites bur pairs with my phone reliably and syncs to Strava painlessly. Battery is the key issue for me as 4-5 hours is the most I’ve got out of it.