Ride all the OS mapsOn Tuesday I completed a VERY long ride, from Elgin (where I left off a week ago) to Peterhead and then back to Aberdeen. I knew it would be long and I enjoyed it very much. I will admit that I am a little tired now! However, I certainly made the most of the available […]
I thought a pre-ride blog post would be in order. Firstly, because I have time to kill on a train to Aberdeen. Next, because I have a new (to me) iPad mini to try out. And also, because I have had an entertaining journey and these elements of my adventure are all part of the […]
I just finished making all the complicated accommodation and train bookings – with the elusive bike spaces – for the next 2 weeks of my adventure. I leave home again in a couple of days. I have had requests to post my itinerary ahead of time, so here it is! Monday 27th June: Trains from […]
Please see below the updated stats for the May and early June sections of the RidealltheOSmaps adventure combined: Number of OS maps visited in sequence: 28 Number of “official” OS map miles cycled: 976 Number of “unofficial” (extra) miles cycled, not on maps 1-28, or in the wrong direction: 457 Total miles cycled in May […]
The sun returned today! What a welcome change from all the grey clouds and showers. I was starting to lose faith in the Scottish weather altogether; but a day of bright sunshine works wonders. It also brings the cyclists out. In the first couple of hours today I found myself waving hello to more people […]
Today was a good day. I enjoy it when things happen that you could never have predicted, and that only occurred through a series of coincidences. That is how today unfolded. But not at first. I awoke to a dry morning; but the clouds were practically touching the surface of Loch Carron. No point in […]
I didn’t want to get up this morning. I suspect yesterday’s combination of rain and whisky had something to do with it, plus staying up late to watch the cricket highlights. I just about made it out of my room for the 10am checkout. It is pretty strictly applied in a youth hostel. They start […]
The trouble with living in such a wonderfully green country is that, inevitably, it rains sometimes. Especially on the western side of Britain where the Atlantic Ocean meets land, often in the shape of mountains. Here, it rains quite a lot. All year round. Places like the Isle of Skye are known for it. So […]
I didn’t really cycle that far today. For one thing, the ferry to South Uist didn’t arrive in Lochboisdale until about 1.30pm. It takes three and a half hours to get there from Mallaig, although that is very much an improvement on times gone by. It used to run out of Oban, which was a […]
The trouble with completing a coast-to-coast trip is that I have to get all the way back to the western most point of the next one to start again. Sometimes that can be almost as hard work as cycling through the maps in sequence. Scotland continues to make life far from simple. Today I got […]