The 15:45 to Glasgow goes alongside the Cairngorms

Very scenic and also predominantly sunny. And so many trees after the sparseness of the Outer Hebrides. A long trip though, after the early start and bus from Ullapool to Inverness. I'm feeling a bit travel worn and end of trip loneliness for the solo traveler is rearing its nasty head. The solution I know is rest and more rest.

This is what I call a library

Opposite the bus station in Inverness.

Multimodal travel in Scotland

Delta to AMS and KLM to GLA
GLA AirPort Express bus to downtown
Scot Rail Glasgow to Oban
Scot Rail Inverness to Glasgow
Scot Rail Glasgow to Euston (London)
Cal Mac ferry Oban to Castlebay (Barra)
Cal Mac ferry Ardmohr to Eriskay
Cal Mac ferry Berneray to Leverburgh (Harris)
Cal Mac ferry Stornaway to Ullapool
HI transport bus Lionacleit (Sth Uist) to Lochmaddy (No Uist)
HI transport bus Lochmaddy to Berneray
HI transport bus Stornaway to Callanish Standing Stones (Lewis) return
City link bus Ullapool to Inverness
To come: Tube/Rail to Epsom and Heathrow
It's no wonder I've explained the trip planning for this one as "advanced"!

Contemporary Inverness

Coffee and cake in the renovated C19th covered market. No one gives a toss about me wheeling Fiorello through and parking at a table. The way it should be.

Outside the Scot Rail station in Inverness

A bittersweet memorial to long forgotten wars during the age of empires.

Thoughts at the end of an adventure cycle

I woke at 4:30a in the Ullapool youth hostel, after a dream filled sleep in the staff quarters. There'd been a mix up in my booking, which had included a request to reserve a lower bunk in the 6 women dorm. Either the reservation card hadn't been placed on a bed or perhaps someone in the dorm decided to ignore it. Well, it was resolved in the best way possible: a private room vs. sharing with other resentful occupants. I've stayed in enough hostels to know how it goes. So, I woke with a start 2 hours pre-alarm, took down the towel I'd used as a curtain and saw the silent misty moodiness of the sea loch. The trip's now gently receding into the dreamlike place of memory, where the discomforts, anxieties and ambivalences disappear and you only remember it was often sunny, the people's you met along the way were hospitable, and the miles and miles of open one lane road, with passing places, unfolded a stark, beautiful landscape dotted with ewes and spring lambs, tiny villages and many roofless black houses and shepherds' huts. Everything is green, gray and brown. The tiny flowers in the machair are fairy bowers, and the gulls, oyster catchers, robins, blackbirds, and doves play second place to the sound of the cuckoos ringing from hedgerow and peat valleys. It's good to have a break from the enormous Scottish cooked breakfast, an a break from living out of a waterproof bag and front satchel. Time to get on the bus to Inverness and turn home.

Ullapool waterfront

At the head of a very scenic sea loch. The Youth Hostel is about 2/3rds down.

First opportunity to buy a new tube for Fiorello

I've been extremely lucky.

On the Ullapool bound ferry

CalMac loads bikes first but keeps us at the rear, in the smog cloud, at the end. Go figure!

Wednesday May 29 farewell to the outer Hebrides

Lews castle and grounds.

Chessmen saying goodbye to the walk ons to Ullapool

Wednesday May 29. It's been a great privilege to visit.

Heb Hostel for my last night in the Outer Hebrides

25 pounds plus 1 pound to rent a towel. 6 bed women's dorm with only 3 women and a nice place to share complimentary cornflakes with other Hebridean Way cyclists and a couple of French long distance walkers.

Tuesday May 28 at Lews castle museum

6 of the Lewis chessmen from Uig, not kept at the British Museum. Provenance of this hoard is problematic as no one kept notes on who found them, where and when.
However they are wonderful. And the museum is free.

Back to Stornaway

Fiorello and my kit ready for the island bus.

Monday’s camping option (50 pounds not cheap)

Built on land gifted to Calloway town by the University of Edinburgh.

Inconvenient and atmospheric.

Another wreck in the machair with a nice display of yellow irises

A seaweed encrusted boat in the Loch on the way to Callanish Camping Pods

It's very rewarding to have time to stroll the shore and see what's to be seen.

The gate to Callanish II

You can see Callanish II and III from Callanish I, if you look east. This custom sheep resistant astronomical gate is a tasteful touch.

Callanish Standing Stones Monday May 27

A rainy and breezy day. Plenty of time to do a leisurely visit to the main stone circle (5,000 years old) and test the boundary between present and past. Lots of fanciful theories about what they were built for. There are at least 3 other smaller stone circles in the neighborhood. Once buried in 5' of peat and cleared in the mid C19th by the local big landowner. A few stones had to be returned to the site after being used as parts of a few local houses.

Wednesday May 29 CalMac 14:00 Stornaway to Ullapool

"The sweetest music greets the traveler longest away from home" - my paraphrase of an exhibit, in Gaelic, in the Lews Castle museum. For me, it's 10 days biking the Hebridean Way, done 'n' dusted.

Callanish 1

Bye til tomorrow

Off to explore the Callanish Standing Stones. Apparently it's a bank holiday Monday but at least the bus still ran!

Seen from the bus

Monday to Callanish Standing stones for 2,90 pounds on the bus

What other riders are doing today.

Only one night at Royal Hotel sadly

A welcome sight but over too soon as it's been a long day.

Not too far to go to Stornaway

Old peat harvesting and an island in a loch blooming with rhododendrons and a few hawthorns. Apparently the rhododendrons are pernicious weeds that spread. Nice splash of color though in such a monotone world.

Sheltering from the wind and rain that’s just picked up

Somewhere to eat pizza and take a break

Post office in Lochs

I don't think it's still working.

Fixed in a bus stop and it held

Nice views back to the mountains of Harris. But very stressful

Before I realized my back tire was flat

The Bonnie Prince Charlie memorial: Gaelic garlic or cockcade?

Lochs area

One of many abandoned farm houses

Old road from Kinloch

Stone bridges parallel the new 2-lane road. Fewer passing places needed here.

Closed Sundays

Obviously an ocean loch. Fish farms at the mouth.

This is Lewis

Saturday heading towards the Loch district

Sunday May 26

Angus of Harris Taxis for 23,75 pounds drove me the first 10 miles to the summit of the killer hill out of Tarbert. Didn't see much of Loch Seaforth as he drove fast. But I got a full serving of Lewis's Hebridean Way with 26 miles of up n down to Stornaway, nothing open on Sunday, no shops, cafes, gift shops. So it was 2 slices of cold veggie pizza from the Hotel Hebrides, a flat tire, a coke with Robert in Balallan, and arrived in Stornaway 30 minutes spare before my dinner reservation.

The war memorial in Tarbert

Likely my grandpa Sandy knew J Morrison in Gallipoli. Another form of Scottish clearances, ironically: kill all the men in the Great War.

Saturday’s the day for Harris Tweed

12,50 for 1/4 metre, so 50 pounds for a metre and it probably weighs 50 pounds too, so out of the question on a bike. But all the shaggy ewes with lambs marked in fluorescent pink, blue and yellow I've passed while riding are the source of this wool.

Inside the Harris Distillery

The cafe isn't open for another 2 weeks due to staff shortages and I don't trust myself either with gin or the local single malt whisky, but these beautiful posters capture the spirit(s) of the place. The distillery is quite new.

Saturday May 25 the bike shed for the Hebrides Hotel in Tarbert

Tarbert and 2 nights at the Hebridean Hotel

A long day but so rewarding to see home for the next two nights.

Friday May 24 moonscape and peat harvesting outside Tarbert

I walked a lot of this. I'm tired, alone, and it's wild rocky land above distant lochs and views towards Skye.

A standing stone near Scarista

Have miles to go so just passed this one on the wide open hills above the ocean.

Harris is machair and white sandy beaches

Northton, Scarista, Borve and Seilebost along the road. Up n down scenic biking with a killer climb up ahead.

Cappuccino in an apothecary in Leverburgh

The herbalist owner of this light industrial unit near the dock took a break from distilling essential oils from a pile of fresh roses to make me a coffee. I like Harris already!

Friday May 24 Leverburgh bound

A short 3-ish miles from the hostel in decent weather, with a stop to look at seals lolling in a cove, then across the strait of Harris. Said goodbye to Scot cyclist Robert and German cyclist Axx(?) on the ferry.

The Gatliff Trust Berneray hostel in Rushgarry

A renovated black house accessible by bus. 23 pounds including sheet rental. Lightly occupied with 2 cyclists, 1 couple with a van and two walkers, due to weather and 3 miles from ferry to Leverburgh on Harris. Everything a hostel ought to be: snug, wild, sociable, a lower bunk, coal burning stove and a chance for me to eat s random assortment of trail food picked up on my travels. Shops are extremely scarce here.

I have a strong suspicion that my grandfather Sandy may have been a “clearances” Scot from the Hebrides

Detail of a map in the CalMac history display 1,50 pounds in the museum.

Still life in the Taigh Chearsabhagh cafe Thursday May 23

The difficult to understand No Uist bus schedule with max 3 possible rides each day. A poem advertising a reading later tonight and a 5-site outdoors sculpture route that would be great if you have a car and it's not windy and raining. Plus a wonderful YA novel I found on the free books shelf inside the warm and dry Lochmaddy CalMac ferry terminal. All plan B!

Thursday May 23 to Lochmaddy

Today's weather too windy and wet so I found the local bus at the community center next door to Dark island hotel and rode it in two trips to Lochmaddy, where I could spend the day at Taigh Chearabargh: museum/art gallery/cafe just up from the ferry to Uig, then later the school bus on to Berneray and the youth hostel. Other people besides locals on the bus. These are two Scottish hill walkers who didn't want to deal with another exposed causeway. The bus whips along the narrow winding one lane road, often exceeding the speed limit (30mph?) Distances here, if given at all, are in miles not km.

Loch Ceann Hulabhaig Tuesday May 28

The view this morning from my Callanish Camping Pod.