Wallace's Wayward Wanderings: Monday 1st August

I awoke early, well early for me when I'm on holiday, a lengthy journey approached.

The 99 was ready, the Sardar was on the rack, my bags were in the car, all I had to do was get up and drive to Arbroath.

Yes Arbroath, Aberbrothick, Smokiesville, 40 minutes up the road, a town Johnston rather liked after the his declaration of Dundee of being nothing much of note. Of course this isn't really where I was going, if it was I would have cycled there and back.

My touring buddie was waiting at the Signal tower museum for me, James had taken a different approach to touring from me, I was in the Racks and Panniers camp, he was in the Trailer camp. Yet we both had far too much stuff.

I rather like the drive to Oban and I rather like driving the 99, it's heavy steering, soft suspension, and excellent carrying capacity makes it perfect for this sort of trip, something its un-predicatable battery isn't suitable for since it was going to spend a week tucked away in a car park in Oban.

The drive was less eventful than my previous trip, which had involved the suspension turret of a SAAB 96 failing and returning home courtesy of my RAC card (something of a compulsory possession if you drive old cars).

So Oban had arrived, a parking spot found, and the ferry terminal visited, a hopscotch purchased.
Clansman sat at her berth, waiting for the journey.

My bike loaded and ready

The Bikes at Oban

A journey of 5 hours, to the to the Western edge of Europe, to the Western Isles of Scotland, to the lands of McNeil, Barra.

Many other cyclists hang around the linkspan waiting instruction to board, we are waved on board, of note amongst fellow cycling passengers was a German family, Mutter, Vatter, Kind und Hund. This set up was rather interesting, the man not only had his gear in panniers, but the childs gear too and in a trailer was the dog, taking a dog into the CTA is a fair bit of trouble as island nations the UK and Ireland + dependencies don't like the potential for Rabies to enter, so either you can get an animal passport and all that entails or have your pet in quarantine for 6 months just in case it has Rabies. I guess the trouble must be worth it if you're also willing to carry the weight of your dog in a trailer for many hundred Km.

The crossing was smooth, and at one point a basking shark was spotted by the bridge and announced on the tannoy, I missed it...

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Kishmul's Castle

Kishmul's castle sits in Castlebay, a reflection glimmering on the calm waters, there's no need to rush, Clansman will not make her way onwards to Lochboisdale today, and being with cycles you are last off anyway.

Our first action on Barra was to get off the island, the road to Vatersay is a steep twisty single track road, these take a wee while to get used to of course, and you can tell a local from a tourist.

A tourist crawls, pulls into every passing place and lets people past. A local times every arrival at a passing place so they don't lose any speed at all, something I was soon to get the hang of on the bike.

The hill up is steep and so too is the hill down, it is signed rather oddly at 11.1% and care must be taken not to hit the cattle grids on corners too fast, but the Vatersay causeway was soon reached.

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James was soon to regret going for the 1 man option

Light was by now starting to die, being August in Scotland that makes it pretty late at night, Clansman had berthed at half 8 so it must have been going on 10 when we crossed the narrow spit of sand that takes you to the village, this is the most southerly inhabited island now and the road simply stops at some houses, we were however at our starting point. As we had crossed the narrow spit of sand between the Atlantic Ocean and Sea of the Hebrides we had scoped out spots to land the tents, camping is allowed on the Machair and the community centre has publicly available facilities, some areas are set out for campervans so they don't simply drive in.

We picked our camping spots as the light died, to the West the Atlantic waves roared to the first land since Nova Scotia, to the East a yacht bobbed in the gentle waters of an inland sea.

GPS Plots:
Oban to CAstlebay - From leaving the Sound of Mull
http://ridewithgps.com/trips/347336

Castlebay to Vatersay:
http://ridewithgps.com/trips/347796