HEB 7journey home
The journey home
Bob and
Tim had got up early and were away they had booked the 7 AM ferry home, the
other four of us all strangely enough went down for breakfast in the guest
house at the exact same time! And enjoyed a full cooked breakfast with loads of
coffee and orange juice, our ferry wasn’t until 2PM so we had plenty time to
shower organise our stuff and leave it all including the bikes in the garden of
the guest house and go for a wander around town,
We would have liked to go round and see the shore side monument to
H.M.Y Iolaire , this tragic
ship that was carrying sailors and soldiers who had been off fighting in the world war one taking them back home to the island of Lewis. This boat had left the port of Kyle
of Lochalsh on the mainland late on the evening of 31 December 1918. At 2:30
a.m. on New Year's Day, carrying men coming home from the war as the ship
approached the port of Stornoway, a few yards offshore and a mile
away from the safety of Stornoway Harbour, she hit the infamous rocks "The
Beasts of Holm" and sank. Those on board would have been able to see the
lights of Stornoway. The death toll was officially put at 205, of whom 181 men
were islanders but as the ship was badly overcrowded and there was a lack of
proper records, the toll could have been slightly higher. John F. Macleod from Ness,
saved 40 lives, swimming ashore with a heaving line, along which many of the
survivors made their way to safety. Only 82 of the 283 (officially known)
passengers survived the disaster; 71 per cent of the people on the yacht
perished in the incident. The impact of the
disaster was devastating to the Islands; 205 passengers were lost, representing
almost an entire generation of young men from the Islands. The
men were wearing their uniforms including heavy boots, which made swimming from
the wreck difficult some of the women of these men found their men washed up on
the shore the next day. The sinking is the worst maritime disaster (for loss of
life) in United Kingdom waters in peacetime 
We had a stroll around the shops and a walk up through the castle grounds to the forest café for scones and coffee, I love the whole story of the Lewis chess men the most famous chess pieces in the world, I've got far too many chess sets at home and never play anyone anymore, but I couldn't resist buying something from the shops even though I'm trying to cut back on buying stuff! I also couldn't resist a photo shot next to a life sized carving in the park.
before we knew it was time to go back for our bikes and head to the ferry, guy said he would nip to Tesco and get us stuff for the journey (he wont be allowed again fruit shoot and crisps is not suitable for our children never mind us!) once on the ferry I got us a beer they had beers from the loch ness brewery quirkily called light ness pale ness and dark ness, this was to be the only beer for the rest of the crew they had decided it was time to stop the beers,
it’s a beautiful ferry journey from Stornoway to ullapool, we had the views in glorious sunshine as we passed the summer isles into Ullapool harbour a place I love, but we were in a rush for our train now and disembarked quickly as the van driver was waiting to get our bikes loaded into his trailer (except Ali`s bike which went in the boot) the friendly chatty driver hooked my phone up to his Bluetooth speaker for our tunes to the train station.
There was a bit of unnecessary panic about getting our bikes on the train, which all worked out fine two in front and two at the back, we all sat together for the scenic train journey back to haymarket where we changed for the polmont/Falkirk train, it was dark and 11pm went we got off at polmont having said our goodbyes to guy, we put our lights on and cycled off to our different homes. Well me to the black bull for last orders, but that was it journeys end adventure over it had been a blast
it had become a lot different from what I had originally planned - A Scottish end to end cycle trip !!
I had been thinking of doing the full Scottish end to end to include the Heb way cycle holiday that we had just done! this would have involve me starting earlier and finishing later than the rest of the heb way gang, which would also have had an impact on the start and finish date for the heb way, I felt it would have been good to add a Scottish end to end to my British and Irish end to ends and then at some point I could do a Scottish coast to coast to add to my English C2C, not just the canal from bowlin out to Edinburgh but maybe the most westerly point to easterly point
Ayr – if you’re planning to cycle up the west coast then stay mainland here! But there’s plenty ferries to Brodick on Arran one every 2.5 hrs. I planned I would stay in ayr overnight then get the first ferry to arran in the morning
Brodick Arran – it’s a 14 mile direct cycle to lochranza on Arran so its probably possible to get back over to the other part of the mainland and possibly to Islay that day! or I could choose to spend a day cycling round arran before moving on
Lochranza- Claonaig is a 50 minuet ferry then you can cycle the 5 mile via the (78) to kennacraig
Kennacraig ferry to port askaig Islay is a 2hr ferry crossing
Askaig Islay - choices here are cycle round the distilleries on Islay or take a ferry to Jura or just move on because askaig in Islay is between Jura and Islay it’s the ferry terminal for these two islands , I could then take a ferry to colonsay then ferry from colonsay to Oban ! this is a big think? because if it’s a cycle tour then you may be better missing out Islay and jura and cycling from claonaig to Oban but then that would also be the case with the HEB way! so it wouldn't have been a land based Scottish end to end for me anyway, it would have been good fun to cycle with a packraft for a trip from jura – scarba then over the bridge over the Atlantic down to Oban ! But for this journey that was never going to be,
Islay to colonsay ferry possible night over in colonsay dependant on timings
Colonsay to Oban ferry where i planned to Meet the heb way only gang at Oban obviously this plan didnt work out, then after the HEB way I planned to cycle on from Ullapool to Cape Wrath (I could then count this as a complete Scottish end to end for me having already cycle to jon o groats but not dunnet heid previously, a true Scottish end to end would require a cycle from Cape Wrath to Jon o groats!
of course i could also have chosen to do my Scottish end to end via the highland trail 550! https://bikepacking.com/routes/highland-trail-550/
there would be no panniers on that trip,
on our last night together in Stornoway I asked the group who were all doing there first cycle holiday except me, if it would be there last cycle holiday? everyone said they would be keen for another and almost right away some of the group have started saying what they would like to do next
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| pump`ed up job done for now |
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