Sunday, June 11, 2017

Skye Rides

Another trip to Skye gave me the opportunity to ride some very different roads even if they are known to me. Mostly on the tandem with The Stoker although I did snatch one ride on the half bike. Here's a small description of them all.

Ride 1 - To Dunvegan




We had cycling friends with us on this holiday and our first day gave us an opportunity to show them that the roads on Skye aren't flat. For this ride we popped up to the cafe at Dunvegan Castle hopine that the forecast rain didn't come in early.
It's a nice run even with the wind that hurt us on the normally quick descents on the way home. Even with that we chose to overshoot the driveway to the cottages, just so I didn't have to waste brake pads. A nice short run,  marred slightly when one of our companions managed to crash on the gravel when turning into the driveway. Luckily there was no damage done.
As part of our holiday we all went to the Fairy Pools in the evening, which was a spectacular place to be as the sun dipped towards the horizon. We drove there but riding there might be the better option as it is always busy. We were eaten alive by midges at the car park when we returned to the car. Yuck!
The Cuillin at the top of the Fairy Pools

Ride 2 - Early on the single bike




With the forecast looking poor I decided to get up early and do a ride before breakfast. Much like being at home! Again I had the wind into my face on the way back and I could also see the rain creeping in from the north. Luckily I just had one short shower and then I was back. The roads have never looked so quiet as on this ride. Especially nice was the wee thumbs up I got from a van driver.
Benefit of the day was spotting the new coffee place opposite the Talisker distillery in Carbost. Our friends tried it later in the week and declared it "good"!

Ride 3 - Central loop




The simplest long trip for us on Skye with no driving to the start. The majority of the roads in this are fine but the Sligachan to Portree section always sees some inappropriate overtaking and, sadly, this day was no exception. However we survived and made a beeline for the Aros centre for the first of two coffee stops.
Coming out of Portree also used to be nasty as we would follow the Uig road but we've now hit on the wicked wheeze of using the lower section of the hill road to Struan instead before taking the road back down to Uigshader and picking up the Dunvegan road at the end of it. It makes for a less stressful ride even if the descent is a little gravelly.
Doing the loop this way round did mean climbing the hill out of Edinbane but it was just a question of popping the tandem into a gear and riding slowly up it. Especially in the upper half where I thought it was never going to end. Having gone up, though, we got the lovely run into Dunvegan where a scone and caramel slice helped power us back home. Our friends decided to take in the views on the way home which on such a nice day was right and proper. We made an unscheduled stop too but that was because the pilot needed some help from our old friend Vaseline!
The Cuillin from the Vaseline stop!

Ride 4 - Back roads




As we were showing the island (or at least some of it) to our friends we had saved the little back road loops towards Dunvegan as a treat for our final day. These roads take the path less travelled and have great views whilst maintaining decent surfaces. Being single track slightly more care is required but they are still great to ride. And mostly the traffic is fine on them. The locals seem to deal with cyclists better than the tourists.
After the excitement of the little loopy bits we headed up the Dunvegan bypass road, over to the Fairy Bridge and on to Trumpan. We had to break our outward journey at the Skye Skyns coffee and tea yurt. The accompanying cheese scones were delicious. When we went to head away we met a couple from way down south that we'd met on the golf course the day before. It was great to meet them again and prove we really did have a tandem.
Excellent coffee stop 
Suitably refuelled we headed up to the end of the road and the ruined church at Trumpan. By then it was extremely windy and we all took shelter behind various walls. As we came aaay from here we got talking to a couple of Dutch motorcyclists who had been doing the NC500. They had had a great week of weather for it but we're heading back home, via London. Our friends must think we talk to everyone!
Trumpan churchyard 
The view west from Trumpan.


Luckily the wind was now in our favour and we headed back to Dunvegan for our second stop. We went to the bakery cafe; we'd never been. I think we will go back as the food was delicious.  Although they did seem to view some of our requests (a tuna toastie and brown bread) as slightly odd. Why?!
We took the direct way home while our pals did one more back road.  This time the little loop to Ullinish for more photos. After our usual refusal to brake at the cottages we actually pedalled on to the viewpoint so the Pilot could get a photo of the ever faithful tandem. From there a mostly downhill ride saw us back to the cottages and then end of our cycling adventures on Skye for this trip.
The tandem and the view. 

The Cuillin from the viewpoint

The view most people stop for. 

Postscript 

Skye us an odd place to cycle. Lovely views but with roads that are (for us at least) quite hilly and the choice is often limited. You can go for main roads and suffer the traffic or smaller roads and suffer the surfaces and the requirement to stop in passing places occasionally. I don't want to put you off but you should know what it's like before you come!

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