Thank you for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.
Thank you all for your great support. This is the first time I've done anything like this for charity and it fairly puts the pressure on to complete the challenge...but complete it we did!!
After an inauspicious start..all 3 of us had bad colds, I had a nasty tummy bug, the weather was awful travelling up to Oban and then when we got on board the ferry the Captain said it would be a rough crossing... not to worry, it was only a 5 hour ferry to Barra. Unfortunately, he wasn't wrong and we didn't see Iain for about 3 of those hours (no sea legs I'm afraid).
However, thankfully the weather was kind to us for the remainder of our trip...i.e.we didn't have any real rain until the very last day, by which time we didn't care less taking a soaking. We didn't see a lot of the sun and the wind was never far away but we were extremely lucky, the rain mostly being either just to the south of us or just to the north and NO GALES! Very lucky indeed!
What a fantastic trip! The first couple of days going through Barra and the Uists and up to Harris were fairly easy going, just 2 or 3 real hills to whet our appetite (?)...but the scenery and beaches were fabulous. The roads weren't too busy and the accommodation we had prebooked was great.
Going from the west coast of Harris (you really should google images of 'Luskentyre beach' if you've never been, absolutely stunning), over to Tarbert on the east coast to catch the ferry over to Uig on Skye was a bit of a taster of what was to come along the north east coast of Skye.. that was a really hard hilly day's cycling of 49 miles and I hate to think how I would have managed in bad weather, but it was worth it. Thank heavens for the last few downhill miles into Portree!
Thankfully day 4 going down to Armadale at the foot of Skye was a lot easier and gave the legs a wee rest before the last 2 very hard days from Mallaig through Arisaig, up Glen Uig to Acharacle, and finally from Acharacle to Strontian and over the monster of a hill to Lochaline (where I got a salute from a motorcyclist coming downhill!!) for our ferry over to Mull. Our last night was in Craignure on Mull so we only had to cycle practically across the road to get the ferry back to Oban the next day to collect the car which had had a good 6 days rest!
Once again, many thanks for your generous donations to Breast Foot Forward.
At the beginning-
There will be 3 bikes on the car to Oban....at least we don't have to cycle all the way from Killie!!! Iain will be there to carry the first aid kit, the emergency repair kits for the bikes i.e. all the heavy stuff; and of course to finance the trip! Our daughter, Catherine, will also be there; she will provide verbal support 'Oh, come ON Mum!' and a target to aim for, at least on the hills, as she has the youngest legs she will be the furthest ahead!
We will be taking the 5 hour ferry to Barra (the setting for Island Parish on BBC2) and then setting off the next morning, with the help of 6 more ferries, on the start of a 250 mile cycle ride over 6 days through the Islands and Highlands....knees permitting!!!
From Barra we go through Eriskay, South Uist, North Uist, Harris, over to Skye, down through Skye and back across to Mallaig on the mainland. Don't think that's the hard work over...have you seen some of the hills on the next couple of sections? We head down through Moidart to Ardnamurchan and then over to Mull where we spend our last night, recovering, before catching our last ferry back to Oban the next morning.
Don't worry it says you're donating to 'Twilight Walk', this was a regular previous event organised by Breast Foot Forward, which Catherine and I took part in a few times.
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