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bikes general moosling travel trip reports

Scotland: Skye sky

Both Finn and I dream about his birthday. He dreams he is a ninja and has to fight lots of snakes in our house with his sword, and when he gets them he says ‘heeYAH heeeYAHH!’ And then he gets to eat his cake because he did such a good job. On the other hand, in my dream we’re at the wrong place and nothing is organised and I’m letting everyone down.

To the cemetery on Broadford Bay, we watch a man in gumboots go to spend time with his cows, and I am reminded of my father.

We wander into Broadford to get coffee, groceries, and more sunshine. Broadford Bay is lovely. Possibly less lovely when overcast and raining. Probably all of Scotland is lovely in the current weather.

Looking at the traffic we decide against taking the A road to head further north. It’s just too busy and narrow. Instead we turn south and cycle down Sleat.

A woman and her father are cycling towards us, and recommend the steep way through Tarskavaig. By the time we get there, the weather is looking threatening, and Alex has tired legs. I bow to common sense, and we choose the easy route.

A few kilometres out from Armadale it starts to rain on us. We cut through some gardens and past a castle, accidentally avoiding paying an entry fee.

A black faced sheep with four fat lambs runs ahead of us on the road.

We pull into the Rubha Phoil wild eco forest garden and campground. It rains. We select a camping spot from the camp pads strewn throughout the forest and along the coastline. Set up in the rain, then cook in the cabana.

There, I find a tick on me. Argh! A tick! Panic! We get it off using the fancy new plastic tick remover device we’d bought a few days before. (This was the only time we got to use it, not because there weren’t any more ticks, but because after this Someone was playing with it and it went mysteriously missing, and there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth)

As it continues raining, Finn and I sit in the tent and eat an entire packet of shortbread, in an act of self defence. #ican’tstopeatingshortbread #somebodystopme #it’sjustsotasty

By then, being 8pm it’s basically late enough to start falling asleep – when out cycle touring apparently we can all easily spend half the day sleeping.

Notable quotes from Finn
“Where are the clouds?”
“Do I like Irn Bru?” (answer is yes apparently… we have our first today, it tastes a bit like creamy soda)

Distance: 33km
Elevation gain: 270m
Location: Ashaig to Armadale (Isle of Skye)

Categories
bikes general moosling travel trip reports

Scotland: It’s all about Skye

To leave Morvich, we were faced with the options of a busy (flat) road, or an old military road (over an enormous hill).

We chose the hill :)

Cycling around the bay, we were surprised to find our old military road was paved. It was quite narrow though, and wasn’t exactly a direct route, so the traffic was minimal and travelling slowly.

It was thoroughly steep, with 15% pitches that had Alex off and pushing. Or just kicking off his stoker, on the grounds he wasn’t pulling his weight.

Towards the top of the hill we stopped to admire views of Loch Duich as a poor truck that was stuck just a few hundred metres from the pass desperately tried to get started going up the hill again. Then there was just a glorious coast down to Glenelg Bay.

We diverted into Glenelg for a tasty eclectic cafe lunch and cakes. Then a quick re-stock in the tiny supermarket (two for one shortbread? Don’t mind if I do!) before short cutting past some old ruined barracks, and back on the road to the ferry.

The small Kylerhea ferry was on the other side when we arrived. For £8 we got a ride over to the Isle of Skye, across the narrow strait. A ferry has been operating there for centuries; it used to be the main connection between Skye and the mainland.

As we pulled away from the ferry, I looked ahead and realised we had another enormous hill to climb. I reminded myself that I like hills, yet was secretly relieved to discover that this one wasn’t quite so long or so steep as the last at least.

At the top of the pass we stopped to lunch, laze in the sun, and collect some extra water from the stream – it was a warm day! We even found a flat snake to show Finn (for educational purposes).

Another glorious coast down toward Broadford Bay followed, Skye is beautiful.

Also, I have realised my son is a hand talker. A good chunk of this trip was spent reminding him to keep his hands on the handlebars, as he kept gesticulating wildly with them at inopportune moments. See prime example in photo below:

On the bay, we reached an interesting looking wild and rambling campground. The sign outside read: ‘TOTALLY FULL!’

We wondered if they really meant it; sometimes they’ll have extra space for hikers or bikers… but inside there was another sign reading: ‘WHEN WE SAY WE ARE FULL WE MEAN WE ARE FULL’.

Well, that was nice and welcoming. Slightly alarmed, we started backing off and planned to head onwards. But the campsite man wandered up, and pointed out the smaller, harder to read sign that reads: ‘EXCEPT FOR WALKERS & CYCLISTS’

It was clear and warm with lots of blue sky. There was only a mild breeze, so the midges were out in force. The campground sells the midge repellant ‘Smidge’, with a little sign suggesting that it “works quite well”. Understated Scottish advertising at its best.

Notable quotes of the day:
“It’s too hot in Scotland”
“Do we have my swimming things Mama?”

Distance: 36km
Elevation gain: 760m
Location: Morvich to Ashaig