Highlands and Islands Bike Tour - May 2022

Day 5 - Ullapool to Lochboisdale - South Uist (Outer Hebrodes) Friday 13/05/2022 ------------------------- We were shattered when we got back to the campsite from Ullapool and we had an early night. We both slept well but unfortunately woke to wind and rain again, packing away our wet tents into our dry dry-bags..... We rode back down to the ferry port at Ullapool, checked-in and then went to a local shop for breakfast and snacks before catching the ferry. The boat was reasonably busy, but only one other biker, a German called Stefan who joined us for a part of today's journey. He was on an epic cross European trip - thanks to some negotiated unpaid leave from his work. We spent a couple of hours on the ferry then got off at Stornoway on Lewis. We headed up across a very windy moor to Arnor, where we looked at an old peat-bog longhouse before heading to Callanish to visit a stone circle which was very interesting and scenic. We then headed south towards Harris (much cooler mountain...

Day 4 - Nairn to Ullapool,  Thursday 12/05/2022 ------------------------- After a nice evening sitting in the bothy, watching Goewizard's 'straight line mission across Scotland' YouTube video over beers, we slept well in our warm cosy tents and woke to sunshine and bird song. We were a bit slow getting going as the sun was out drying our tents and we had a nice bothy in which to cook our porridge breakfast. We eventually hit the road after 10am in pretty good weather. We rode towards Inverness and after going through the urban hustle rode towards Lairg, the crossroads of the northern Highlands and the centre of Sutherland. In fact we didn't have any rain until 1.30pm, but when it rained then it really rained and blew a gale.... Things didn't improve when Konrad hit a grouse (grouse was unharmed and flew off, bike and rider also unharmed so it's a draw) and the weather towards Laxford Bridge continued to get worse. That said, irrespective of the weather, riding t...

Day 3 - Killin (Scotland) to Nairn Wednesday 11/05/2022 ------------------------- After a comfy evening in the cabin, a porridge breakfast and making full use of the facilities, we slowly packed-up and set out on what promised to be a shorter yet even more spectacular day. We left Loch Tay and headed via the Braes of Foss to Loch Rannoch in drizzle over a scenic pass, riding along it's southern forested shore to Rannoch Station- a remote train station on the West Highland Line (as close as we can ride to the train stop from Trainspotting!). We rode back on the other shore of the Loch back to Kinloch Rannoch, then on the scenic roads around Loch Tummel and the Tay Forest Park- avoiding most of the rain as we did. We headed into Pitlochry for a light lunch and fuel then headed across on an epic backroad across to Glen Shee, where we rode on the epic ski roads. We stopped in Braemar for some photos, rode on to Lecht Ski Centre then carried on to Tomintoul where we stopped for some sho...