HEB 2 the cycling begins
The cycling begins.
Alarms had been set for 7am, the
forecast was good so we were keen to get up early and make the most of the day,
I had stupidly not reset my alarm from the previous day and it went off in our
family room an hour early and woke everyone up! I was on the top bunk and asked
guy below me if he could pass me my trousers up as that’s where the alarm was
coming from,
it was also a bit of an unknown as to how the cycling kit, and distance would go. It was there for a major disappointment to wake up to a very overcast day with fairly heavy rain. However, we have all the kit required for all weathers waterproofs were donned we finally set off at 8.40.
The cycle route starts south of where we were at Vatersay the first part of our Hebridean way went ok, although I was having some lower gear issues on the steeper climbs 9which I ended up just living with).
It was cold and driech its horrible getting
cold feet or hands but it seemed impossible to keep the extremities dry
and worse warm! even with gloves and neoprene over shoes on my hands and feet were freezing all
morning. After obligatory photos at the start of the route, we turned around
we then cycled the five miles back over the causeway and up the very steep hill we
had happily freewheeled down earlier, this saw a couple of the group off and
pushing. The wee café opposite the school which had been recommended to us by
the barman the previous evening was a welcome sanctuary of warmth also our
place for our late breakfast, big mugs of coffee and bacon rolls all round, some
of the boys had extra rolls with sausage and egg there was a bit of confusion
over one roll with Ali ending up eating half of Gary’s bacon roll minus his
sausage lol. this was what we had planned to do cycle the five mile south to
the start and cycle the five mile back to castlebay to have breakfast, we had all
decided we would do it right and not skip the first section and just head north
from castlebay, but it was a cold wet ten miles to just cycle right back passed
our bunkhouse,(10.9miles done)
it was also a bit of an unknown as to how the cycling kit, and distance would go. It was there for a major disappointment to wake up to a very overcast day with fairly heavy rain. However, we have all the kit required for all weathers waterproofs were donned we finally set off at 8.40.
The cycle route starts south of where we were at Vatersay the first part of our Hebridean way went ok, although I was having some lower gear issues on the steeper climbs 9which I ended up just living with).
From there it was another 8.79 miles to cycle out to
Barra airport we cycled this in just short of an hour it was scenic and the
rain had stopped, the airport on barra is famous for being tiny with the runway
being the long stretch of beach, Gary had previously been here having once taken the
flight up for a beach landing and said it was very pleasant, I loved it and
sent my mum a postcard while we had another coffee and plenty photos taken of
the small airport, we watched a flight come in then set off for the ferry
terminal for our 15:40 sail time to Eriskay which was only 2.9 miles cycling
and we had two hours to wait in the ferry terminal waiting room (an hour extra in bed to let the rain stop woulda been nice)
It was a steep uphill cycle out of the
ferry terminal we were heading for the A M politician bar for a pint and a bowl of soup, it was only one and a half miles to the pub but it seemed a lot longer due to the hill
Eriskay is famous for the film whisky galore which is a classic British film about the true event of a boat which sank near the shore here laden with cases of whisky which the locals liberated and stashed, much to the annoyance of the local authorities, this film was recently remade with gregor fisher playing the main character (but I preferred the old black and white film), the pub didn’t disappoint us the owner Julia campbell was lovely she even brought us real relics from the ship! a bottle of the whisky a flare gun knife and we took loads of photos, we found it hard to leave we ended up having three beers due to tim egging us on
When we eventually left we still had 8.74miles to cycle over
a long causeway into a headwind to get to our hotel at Dalburgh, some of us were
regretting that third pint with a bit of heartburn now, we reached our hotel
for the back of six it must have been previously an old folks home but it was fine
except for the issue with the showers, myself and guys room also bob and Tim’s room had
cold showers that sometimes went warm (a bloody mind of their own these showers) I opted to just
go for it cold as I wanted out for my dinner, if your eating out at night on
the isles you have to be mindful that their kitchens and bars shut early, we walked
along the road to a place called the Borrodale hotel for dinner and beers
Eriskay is famous for the film whisky galore which is a classic British film about the true event of a boat which sank near the shore here laden with cases of whisky which the locals liberated and stashed, much to the annoyance of the local authorities, this film was recently remade with gregor fisher playing the main character (but I preferred the old black and white film), the pub didn’t disappoint us the owner Julia campbell was lovely she even brought us real relics from the ship! a bottle of the whisky a flare gun knife and we took loads of photos, we found it hard to leave we ended up having three beers due to tim egging us on
32.89 miles of
cycling completed on this first day
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| new causeway new island |
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