Scotland - 'ere we come!

It starts again - another year, another tour and another adventure. Pat, my cycling buddy and I are meeting up in Aberdeen on Monday (19th August) to explore the 'Scottish Isles'. We have about a month and are hoping for half reasonable weather. Amazingly, there is a straight through Cross Country train from Newton Abbot to Aberdeen - it has space for 2 cycles. I have used this train before and the space is minute and only suitable for child's bikes or slim road bikes. I am hoping I'll be the first bike onboard. However 'tis a 10 hour journey.

We are catching the overnight ferry from Aberdeen on Tuesday to Lerwick in Shetland, scooting across to Fair Isle and then to Orkney then ferry back to Aberdeen. We train across to Glasgow and then Oban before catching the ferry to Castlebay in the Outer Hebrides. We head north until the land runs out at the Butt of Lewis before heading for home via Ullapool, Inverness then Aberdeen for the Cross Country train to Devon. We decided on this way round in the hope that the midges in the Outer Hebrides will have lost their bite by early September and we can sleep easy in our tents with out being eaten alive!!

Pat joined me in July for our annual Adventure with Martin Symons (https://www.martinsymons.co.uk/) - this year was the 10th anniversary ride across England - we followed Hadrian's Wall Cycle Route from Bowness-on-Solway to South Shields. 

Last year I cycled around the Cherbourg Peninsular with my son-in-law Ian - that's me relaxing in camp - at least the sun was shining then!!

The good news for both of us is that we have slimmed down since our last 'big' ride which should make the tackling of the Scottish hills a tad easier.