Glasgow, Arran and the Edinburgh Festival

I had three nights with Derek and Shirley and they were really good and put Bluey up as well which enabled us stay together. We were in need of a bit of space so we did separate day trips. Bluey went to visit the town where his Grandmother was born and I went into Glasgow. It's quite a nice city, prettier than it's reputation, in fact I like it more than Edinburgh. Sure Edinburgh is more spectacular with the castle and Arthur's Seat but it's buildings are gray and boring if you ask me where as Glasgow just has street after street of Victorian orange sandstone buildings which I find quite impressive and attractive really, it certainly makes for great riding, where as Edinburgh's quite hilly and more of a maze.

Over a couple of days in Glasgow I saw the Modern Art Museum, the Mosque, the People's Palace, the Cathedral and the Football Museum. The People's Palace is a great spot, a lovely building currently with exhibitions on Glasgow's history. My favourite though would be the Cathedral. The huge nave is now just a big open space which has a great atmosphere, more like the public/community space of a mosque but still in majestic gothic architecture. It also has some very atmospheric underground spaces, reminiscent of Canterbury Cathedral after which it would rank as my second favourite church in the UK.

We spent the next four nights with Susan and Andrew (I'd met Susan at the PBI GA) just off Byres road in Glasgow's trendy west end. They have a very relaxed pace of life which we both enjoyed - they too welcomed Bluey even though all they had to offer either of was their living room. From there we explored Glasgow's west end, (Byres road reminds me of a cross between Brunswick St and Chapel St in Melbourne, not as posh as Chapel St but a bit 'nicer' than Brunswick St if you know what I mean,) the Botanic Gardens, and Fossil Grove where workmen in the late 19th century dug up some 250 million year old fossilised tree roots. I can't believe they actually realised what they were, can you imagine your average road digger back then? We also did a couple of day trips to Loch Lomond and the Edinburgh Festival. Loch Lomond was quite pretty, we had a lovely day for it but highlight for me was a great chat with Bluey about spirituality and empowerment. Bluey is much closer to your typical Aussie working class guy than me (but still has things a lot more sorted out than most) and is not the sort of person I'd normally meet or get to know very well so I found hearing his perspective on things quite enlightening. Meanwhile the 40 odd miles we rode along farming back roads just melted away.

Our day in Edinburgh turned out to be our last day together as Bluey decided in the morning to stay the night there and catch his train back to London, but I was heading further west so would return to Glasgow for one more night. We'd met on our way to the Outer Hebrides, the edge of the earth, so to part at the Edinburgh festival which would have to be one of the highest points of human civilisation was quite appropriate I thought. Before parting though we did manage to catch two shows for £7. If you're ever there just go strait to the half price ticket tent outside the touristt information centre. Skim through the shows with half price tickets available, pick up the guide and read a bit more about the titles that grab you slot the times in and buy tickets to suit. I'd done a lot of reading before hand and a few things that I wanted to check out but they were either expensive or finished after the last train for Glasgow had left. We saw '3 for 2' a show about the negative impacts of supermarkets on consumers, suppliers, local traders, staff and society in general and 'Monkey think, monkey do' about a craze that began with one man who decided to follow all of his impulses. Both shows had four person casts who portrayed their characters very well, particularly the first group whose show consisted of a string of short skits and several characters each. The second show was more humorous but both provided a good laugh and some stimulating content, just what I'm always looking for. We also took in the general Edinburgh festival vibe with street buskers and the rest. A great scene although we were surprised when the buskers all packed up at 9pm! We went for a final couple of drinks together, swapped contact details and went our separate ways. It'd had been a great time and adventure together although I was looking forward to a bit more space to just do my own thing. You can be so much more mobile and impulsive on your own. Thoughh traveling together also has it's strengths. I got the train back to Glasgow and home at 1am.

My next couple of days where on the Isle of Arran (Scotland in miniaturee). I made the 60 mile circumnavigation last two nights, the first of which I spent alone in a bunkhouse that had been full the night before - certainly missed Bluey then! (Ironically he'd had a night alone in a hostel the night after we'd met). The two days on the bike were quite scenic but not particularly eventful. I managed to avoid two heavyy showers by stopping under some trees and stayed mostly dry. I wanted to fit some hill walking/climbing but the weather and time were against me. The second night 5 out 6 of us in a 10 bed room were cyclists. I met Campbelll from Galashiels the first true born Scotsman (not suffering from alzhimers) I'd really got to know and helped him fix his bike the next morning.

My final night in Scotland was in Newton Stewart, before a hard ride into a head wind to Stranrear to catch the ferry to Belfast. I counted up today that over six weeks in Scotland I rode 1030 miles and did 95miles of forest/hill walking! Now I know how far it is when I sing "AndI would walk 500 miles andI would walk 500 more..."

So I'm now having my second night in a Belfast hostel, using a computer that works even if you don't put the coins in (ssshhh don't tell anyone) and looking forward to a month or so heading around Ireland. Tomorrow I head north up the coast to the Giant's Causeway and basically plan to head around the coast to Dublin (the long way).

The adventure continues.

The West Coast and the Isles

From the Hebrides Bluey and I caught the ferry to Skye with the idea of sticking together for as long as it suited us both. Bluey originally had only three weeks leave but then the person he was a personal carer for decided he liked Bluey's replacement better so Bluey got shafted, he now has another offer in the pipeline. We had three great days on Skye, riding from Uig around the top and down to Portree the first day, a very scenic 38 miles. On the first half we had great views of Harris across the water and on the other side good views of the Scottish mainland. Plus Skye it's self is pretty scenic as well with some beautiful mountains and cliffs and rock formations like the Old Man of Storr and the Kirk Rocks. It was pretty hilly and hard work so we were looking forward to our shower and bed in Portree. Now we hadn't book quite as far ahead as we should of so when we rang at 5pm and were told the hostel was full but there were £10 beds going in the hostel owners house, we thought that sounded nice. We arrived though to discover that the house was just vacant for a few nights with people moving in the next day. We had a king single (almost double) futon on the floor to share between us (three Italian guys in the next room had only a double between them too) and were told first told we couldn't use the kitchen but then the guy said we could if we cleaned up. Having done that we figured it wouldn't hurt to use the washing machine. From there it went downhill. The owner turned up about midnight, told us we shouldn't have used the kitchen and the that dryer didn't work anyway and then kicked us out the next morning into the rain with wet luggage an no breakfast. We went around the hostel we'd originally called were I'd hung out the night before with people we'd met in Harris and come across on the ferry with but the owner (same guy) had rung there and told them not to let us in. We were getting desperate, setting off on a bike into the rain with no breakfast is not exciting prospect. So we went to the other hostel and asked if we could use the kitchen, they had no problems, so we had breaky, cleaned up and then found it had stopped raining. So we rode off thinking we'd actually done pretty well and it could have been a lot worse, the wet washing in our bags would soon dry.

As it turned out I decided to make this my longest day on the bike riding a fairly scenic 30 miles down to Broadford and the turn off to Elgol, reputedly the most scenic part of Skye past the Cullin mountains. Since we had to come back through Broadford though we decided to leave our bags at a hostel and pick them up on our way back. As we set off though we discovered it was 15 miles to Elgol not 10 turning a 20 miles return trip into 30. Bluey decided this was too much for him and went back for a kip, while I pressed on. At first I thought I might not go all the way, but then i realised that this bit plus the 5 further miles we had to do to get to a hostel at Kyleakin (we'd booked a bit further ahead this time) would take me to 65 miles which is past the 100km mark - and I was up for the challenge. It wasn't easy either, two long and reasonably steep hills into a head wind really took it out of me - but coming back was nice and the scenery was pretty stunning. The first half was dominated by two contrasting groups of hills, one black basalt group with jagged peaks looking ominous beneath dark clouds, the other smooth and rounded red granite hills that looked white in the bright sunshine - you couldn't have more of a contrast. Then at Elgol you have a magnificent view across a bay of Cullin range, a whole series of dark jagged mountains. I'd love to spend days walking through but it doesn't look like they'd be any flat ground to camp on!

Kyleakin was a pretty little spot, good for recovering from a long days ride. The next day we rode over the bridge to Kyle of Lochalsh on the mainland and then back down to Armadale, ferry to Mallaig and another 10 miles to Arisaig to stay with another Servas host (Bluey has now applied to join Servas). A fairly uneventful day (38m) with a few showers and pretty scenery but not as good as the day before. The coast road between Mallaig and Arisaig had some nice beach views but is very undulating and not quite so good on a bike.

Our day in Arisaig turned out to be a beautiful day, the one you get about every six weeks according to our hosts and they offered us their canoe to go out on the bay. This we did exploring a few islands as we went. We got to the open sea which was very calm and decided to try and paddle to large cliff island quite a way out but after goin for a while we decided it would take too long and we didn't have enough food so turned back and just dotted amounst the islands for the afternoon. One island we landed on had sand that you walked through like freash snow, your feet disappearing halfway up your calf and air bubbles pouring out wit every step you took. Some how the sand was extremely airated both above and below the water level - I don't understand why. But we had a truely beautiful day amongst the islands, waves and seals.
The next morning was the complete opposite, completely fogged in and raining again, so we got on the train to Fort William - along the Harry Potter line including the great arched bridge. we had a bit of a look around Fort William where it cleared up and sun came out leaving a perfect afternoon for riding up Glen Coe. This was another great ride, along Lochs and then about 6 miles continuous uphill up the glen with a tail wind (we still averaged 8-9 miles an hour) and up onto Rannock Moor, a huge flat area on top surrounded by mountain peaks. After riding all the way up the Glen we felt on top of the world, so took advantage of being cyclists and just put our bikes to the side of the road and stopped to enjoy the moment - the cars didn't appreciate it the same way we did and all had to drive on to the car park anyway. Then we rode on and down to Bridge of Orchy (total 42 miles) and caught a train to Oban, skipping ahead due to a lack of available Servas hosts.

From Oban we decided to go out to Mull and Iona for a night, but as this meant two more 40 mile days (there and back) we decided to leave our bikes and most of our luggage and hitch hike. This was a first for me and a different adventure for us both. Mull is an island without the traffic of Skye but still some quite beautiful scenery. It took us three cars to get 40 miles to Fionnphort, a local, a French couple who stopped near us looking lost so we offered directions and they decided to go in our direction and take us and a guy coming out as a temporary director of the Christian Community based at Iona who decided he could use a hand loading his luggage from his Alfa Romeo to the ferry. So definitely offered an interesting perspective on a range of things.

We arrived at a nice hostel about 4:30 and decided to have an early tea. Then I found myself wandering Iona's beaches and rocky mountains (which have always been the two most spiritual places for me) aware of some of the spiritual history of the place and what a pilgrimage it is for so many Christians. But to find myself here no longer part of that faith yet none the less sensing that there was something out there. I spent three hours walking around the island remembering where I'd come on my spiritual journey and that I'd got to the point of 'If God's out there i don't know who or what God is' The thought occurred to me that perhaps God is just the name we give to the bits of meaning of life that we don't understand. It used to be that people thought the weather was an expression of God's will, but now we understand this differently. As we understand more and more of the world and ourselves, our concept of God is shrinking. If this is true then by God's very nature we can never understand God but we cans till learn more about life by trying to understand the things we don't understand - by trying to understand that we call God.

The following morning we visited the old abbey and reading some of the material about the Iona community I decided that it didn't really seem that different from many others I'd heard of, just that somehow it had achieved a bit more 'fame'. We ferried back across, already wet from about 20 mins walk in drenching rain and stood in the rain for a further half an hour before a nice family from Surrey picked us up and took us all the way back to Craignure - the ferry terminal for Oban. We had a quick look around Oban, a city with more character than we'd seen for a while, more than just a tourist town, farming village or ferry port which is about all we'd seen for quite a while. Then back to our bags, changed into dry clothes and caught a train down to Glasgow. Another train out to the fringe of Glasgow and about 5 miles in the dark to stay with my Uncle Derek and Aunty Shirley, a bit of a chance to stop for a few days.

Boy do I need it
James

The magic of the Outer Hebrides

Now in Glasgow, staying with my Uncle Derek and Aunty Shirley who are here for six months from Auckland NZ. As predicted this is really the first decent chance I've had to access the web for a while.

The biggest thing of the last two weeks began within a couple of hours of writing my last post in Ullapool hostel where I'd been using time waiting for the ferry. The only other cyclist on the ferry was a guy from Sydney called Bluey who'd been working down in surrey for about a year and had just started three weeks holiday cycling around Scotland. He'd trained up to Edinburgh and then Inverness and then ridden a whopping 62 miles to Ullapool the day before - into a strong headwind no less! His first day of cycling for the trip as well! Anyway we got chatting and seemed to have a few other things in common as well both trying to travel cheap with a spirit of adventure not planning too far ahead. We were both heading in the same direction off the ferry so decided to ride together, I was going about 10 miles him about 15 (turned out to be about 20). By the time we'd had three hours on the ferry and 10 miles on the road together we decided we'd meet up in the morning back the turn-off where we parted and check out Lewis together. But a lot else happened before that.

Side note: Also on the ferry we also met Ian, the boss of the lady I was to stay with who gave a few local pointers about Lewis and Harris (the two parts of the largest island in the Outer Hebrides).

So it was quite an amazing little ferry trip. I arrived at my hosts (Jan and Munro Gold) place about 8:30pm hoping I wasn't too late for dinner and wondering how things might work out for meeting Bluey tomorrow but didn't have anytime to think about that, it was drop my bags in the foyer and sit down to a large feast. At the table I also found another servas traveller Bruce from St Kilda in Melbourne and his girlfriend Eva from Berlin (they met on the underground in New York!) who had arrived about an hour before me and Sally who boards with Jan and Mun in their bothy (grannyflat) out the back. From there the evening was just one big party, with everyone getting to know each other. A beer and a few wines with dinner became whisky, which soon turned to music and dancing and then at about 3am (about half an hour after Bruce and Eva had gone to bed) it was announced that we were transferring to the other room. I had no idea what this meant, I hoped it meant bed also as I was over due for it but realised that while music and party continued to rage trying to sleep was pointless so I just followed along. The other room turned out to be a miniature cinema with full sound system and data projector, and loud music became The Incredibles, played loud enough through the surround sound system to keep Bruce and Eva awake upstairs. Sally went to bed about 3:30am but I always enjoy a good movie (even if I’ve seen it before) and watched it through until 5am when I covered up the now sleeping Jan and Mun with doonas and went to bed, the sun about to rise. What.. A.. Night.. !!!

I slept soundly until 10am thankful I hadn't arranged to meet Bluey too early but knew I couldn't face the bike so tried to call Bluey on his mobile but got no answer and went back to bed. Jan woke me again at 11 asking if was going to meet Bluey. I still couldn't face the bike so Jan offered to drive me down to the corner. A good thing she did too because Bluey was no where to be seen so we drove on to the hostel where he was staying, and eventually found him not far from it. He'd been the only person in the hostel and had had to wait until 11am for the shop next door to open so he could get change to leave money in the hostel honest box in order to pay for the night. We picked him up and Jan invited him to stay with them also. So in the end if We hadn't partied until 5am I wouldn't have seen Bluey again because I would have got there at 11am, waited until maybe half past when Bluey still would've been an hour away and then given up. But now we were set for an exciting few days.

At this point I would like to stop and apologise to all the other great people and Servas hosts I've stayed with who I haven't mentioned in this blog and of course say a big thank you for making my trip such a great time. I deliberately haven't mentioned people mainly because I've been giving them all my blog address and want to keep this as true a record as I can not having to talk things up because I thought people might read what was being said about them. So I decided the best way to remain genuine was just to avoid the subject altogether, but with Jan and Mun all that's just blown out of the water.

So we had a few days together. Jan took us all into Stornoway for the carnival, a chance to see the local community having some fun together. Bruce and Eva took Bluey and I and our bikes to Callanish (the second biggest site of standing stones after Stone Henge) and Great Bernera where we had a good cycle around some beautiful beaches and a bit of rock climbing. Then after Bruce and Eva left we had a day cycling around Lewis catching a lift with Jan into Stornoway again and then incredibly meeting Jan completely by chance just as we found our back to the main road, for a lift the last 5 miles back home. We got to herd Mun's few highland cows and a whole bunch of sheep from one paddock to another. (And did you know that Highland cows were traditional black until Queen Victoria bought Balmoral and got a herd of red ones setting a new trend which has led to the black ones being almost completely bred out of existence!?). There were a couple more party nights like the first one, but now I had a bit of an idea what to expect, and I also discovered the Harry Potter books reading my way through no. 2 over the first few days and then through no. 3 in the last 24 hours I stayed, most of it from 1:15am to 6:45am. I just couldn't put it down and I wanted to finish it before I left. They are certainly better than the movies, very readable and the plot to number three has some notable differences. After five nights with Jan and Mun, Sally gave us lift down to Tarbet and we ended up having a days ride and another night down in Harris, actually the more hilly and scenic part of the island before catching a ferry across to Uig on Skye.

But that's for another post, as this is long enough already. It really was a magic time, from meeting Bluey (and Ian) on the ferry, having time with Mun and Jan, meeting Bruce (whom I hope to catch up with again in Melb) and Eva, miraculously finding Bluey again the next day and then numerous other things that just amazingly worked out, the whole time we were on the island (and a bit of 'The Incredibles' and Harry Potter magic thrown in), it was just a most memorable time.

Still loving every moment
James

Pugsworth in Scotland - The experience

Scotland has been noticeably colder, windier and more hilly but I've actually done more cycling than in England because the distances are more manageable and I've become fitter, finding 50 miles (80kms) in a day quite manageable where before I'd been sticking to 20-30 miles. On the up side the people are friendlier and the architecture and scenery are more interesting, the former having a distinct European influence, French and Dutch mostly. The warm clothes I've brought are finally getting some use, though I've still only had two full (non-bike) days in long pants. Continuing the snack food exploration, the best thing here has been Scottish Scones, sort of a cross between a savoury and really thick pita bread. They pack great, taste good by them selves but like bread go with just about anything so are a great snack in themselves or quite a good side dish to a meal. A few highlights: The first is a great ride I had from Edinburgh to Falkirk along the Union Canal, apparently the most famous canal in Scotland and I can see why. It stretches about 30 miles but is completely flat and without lochs all the way to Falkirk. So that and a tail wind made for great riding but what made it so special was that it runs through the hills so there is a great view on one side and water on the other the whole way. On top of that it includes a 100m high aqueduct and a 600m long tunnel which was really cool. That the main bike route only uses a small section of the canal and that I discovered it by accident made it all the more special. It is one of the best rides I've done all trip, definitely the most scenic and only rivalled by my Sherwood forest ride which is the most adventurous I've done. The second is just a little moment from Sunday 31st of August. I'd spent the night before in an independent hostel in Caputh playing Family Fortune with a bunch from Edinburgh and chatted till 1am with a guy whose family were deported from Nauru in the 80s for inciting civil unrest! I woke refreshed at 8:15 (I normally need much more sleep especially after riding 45 miles the day before) and was the road by 9:30. This is the earliest I've been on the road by choice, and it seemed ridiculous for a Sunday morning but it was a beautiful morning, the sun shining and I was riding along the beautiful river Tay. I was feeling so good I composed a short poem: O Joy, O Ecstacy! This is heaven Heaven is where I am, I must be God The idea being that heaven is not a place in the sky, it wasn't the place I was in that was like heaven but just the mood I was in and the time I was having, and it just follows me where ever I go! The next highlight was walking along the river North Esk near Edzell in Angusshire. A short ride from where I was staying I came to a bridge across the river and just stopped right there to admire this rushing water cascading down a rocky gorge. I love moving water and I love rocks but the two together is just awesome. Turns out this is where I'd been directed to for a walk 'through the blue door'. I turned a 1 hour walk into a 3 hour one, having so much fun climbing over the rocks keeping as close to the water as possible. The river had such diverse scenery, rapids, water falls, deep narrow channels, wide calm pools and everything in between. It was so beautiful and to think I was all the way up here in Scotland enjoying this river just made me laugh with ecstasy. I really wanted to canoe down the river and stuck around an extra day to so I could get some but to no avail. I'm now trying to plan ahead a bit to make sure I get to canoe a river somewhere in Scotland but the water levels have been low everywhere, I guess that's because I've lucky with the rain, only getting wet on three days this whole trip so far (all in Scotland though). Probably my best day so far though was walking in the Cairngorms, Scotland highest mountain range. I was lucky enough to run into a couple of people doing an adventure training course (to become qualified leaders) who were staying at the hostel I was at. They lent me a backpack, map and compass for the day and gave me some tips on places to visit (and others to avoid). At first I though the compass was a bit more than I needed but then I remembered that here in Scotland you can often go all day without seeing the sun and it was easy to lose your bearings. By the end of the day I realised that I'd never done such a long walk in such a big mountain range, and was glad I'd been reasonably well equipped (no first aid gear though I realised the following day). I got to the base of the mountains about midday, left my bike in a carpark about halfway up the road to the chair lift and set out on foot with a vague idea about where I was going (sort of sums up my whole trip really but is best way to have an adventure) but as it turned out I was going away from the chair lift towards a large rocky gorge called Lairig Ghru. Just as I reached it though I noticed another huge gorge further into the mountain and decided to take a short detour for more of look. The land was deceptively undulating though and it took me about twice as long as I expected, I was also bush bashing and discovering how moist the ground could be in parts and the amazing diversity of plant life here, really quite incredible. My favourite plants were the bright coloured mosses in every colour on the spectrum between green and red. Having seen a bit of the other gorge I headed back to Lairig but instead of descending back towards it's entrance I decided to scramble gradually down a rockslide into the gully. The whole area is filled with various rockslides, some older and more stable than others, so it was mostly safe but very steep in parts an I had a couple of anxious moments when I heard rocks falling in other parts of the gorge. Eventually I made it to the bottom and continued through this huge gorge with amazingly steep slopes on both sides and a creek running through the bottom. It went on for much longer than I expected and was beginning to wonder if was going to be able to meet up with another path and loop back to the car park within the day. By this point (about 3pm) I also hadn't seen anyone for a couple of hours but eventually met two others, both on their own, and carrying full hiking gear so they could camp anywhere the wanted to. they did confirm though that I should be able to make it around, though I had a long way to go. Eventually I came to a place where I could take a short cut up one a creek burn on one side of the gorge to meet the track coming back along the ridge. This was great fun in itself. I basically climbed up the middle of a creek with it running down on both sides of me. Then all of a sudden it disappeared, from rushing creek to dry ground, although I could still hear it flowing? - underground. Due to the nature of the ground (another old rockslide) the creek flowed entirely underground at various points down the hill. It was amazing to hear but not see all this rushing water. The top of gorge was a rocky moon scape, where no sooner had I found the path than it disappeared again amidst all the rocks. On coming around the summit though I came to a large sheet of ice, still sitting on the side of the mountain. I'd seen an even larger one of these earlier, the tail of a glacier still siting above the glacial valley it had carved out - amazing to see this relationship so close at hand. I found out later that this larger ice sheet is the one the use to measure global warming in Scotland. I also found out later that by taking the short cut up the creek I'd avoided/missed climbing Scotland second highest peak, Ben Macdui, and bagging a Munro (peak over 3000 ft). The hill I had climbed was of munro height but is too close to a taller munro (the one I skipped) to be considered a munro itself. I then began the long descent along the rocky ridge and back down the chair lift route. It was now about 8pm though so all the tourists had gone and the place was pretty much deserted. I'd had a great day though. When I arrived in the morning the mist still covered the tops of the mountains but my mid afternoon the cloud had lifted and the sun came out at times to brighten up the scenery but didn't stay out which was good as it meant I didn't get too hot. By evening the clouds were again gathering but it didn't rain on me at all. I'd even seen some grouse and a couple of miniature frogs. I got back to my bike about 9:45 and rode the 10 miles back to the hostel, luckily mostly downhill. I was a great adventure of a day and I must do some multi-day walks in mountains sometime, maybe cradle mountain in Tasmania.

Pugsworth in Scotland - the details

I spent an hour updating this yesterday in Inverness thinking it would be my last internet for a while as it is getting harder to find and/or more expensive but then I find myself at a hostel in Ullapool with internet at a pound an hour, the basic UK rate and cheapest I've ever seen at a hostel. So because of that and because I haven't updated for a while due to having too many adventures I've decide to write two posts, this one with the basic details of where I've been and people stayed with and the major things I've seen, and distances cycled etc which I know some will be interested in and the other which will record some of the more significant experiences. So the details: Sunday 17th July - train from Newcastle to Edinburgh, rode south to Peebles in the Borders where I stayed with Servas hosts for two nights. 23 miles into head wind - 3hrs. Monday 18th - quiet day, walked the town in the morning and nearby forest hills in the afternoon with one of my hosts. Had Haggis for dinner - yum Tuesday 19th - rode back to Edinburgh 23 miles with tail wind - 2hrs. couldn't find a Servas hosts but couch surfed instead and still scored a bed for two nights! Wednesday + Thursday - in Edinburgh, walked up to Arthurs seat for a great few, castle and watched some of the Homeless World Cup. Thursday night in independant youth hostel that was a converted church. The rooms had walls but no ceilings so you could look up to this magnificent old church roof. won five games of chess against three opponents until 1am. Friday 22nd - Great ride along the union Canal to Falkirk, train to Stirling independant youth hostel, 35miles. Saturday 23rd - Day in Stirling, rode to Glendevon YHA, 30 miles in the hills. Sunday 24th - rode through Fife to St Andrews, for a sunset walk on the Old Course (golf duh). Stayed with a servas host for three nights, 54miles. Monday 25th - St Andrews Tuesday 26th - rode and trained back to Dunfirmline for the day, 20 miles. Wednesday 27th - rode to Edzell via Glamis Castle through very light but drenching rain, stayed with Servas hosts for three nights, 55miles. Thursday 28th - A great walk up the North Esk river, 7 miles. Friday 29th - quiet rainy day in Edzell. Saturday 30th - Rode to Caputh stayed in independent youth hostel, 45miles. Sunday 31st - rode to Pitlochry and trained to Aviemore in the highlands, stayed in YHA, 30 miles. Monday 1st - Rode up to the base of the Cairngorm mountain range, had a fantastic 10hr walk and then rode back to the hostel arriving 10:30pm - how good are long evenings. Rode 20 miles, walked 18miles. Tuesday 2nd - Rode to Inverness, stayed in grungy independent youth hostel, 45 miles. Wednesday 3rd - changed hostels, rode to Loch Ness and back, 20 miles. Thurdsay 4th - Bus to Ullapool rode to Auchiltibuie and back, 35 miles; walked up Ullapool hill, 4 miles. My plans from here: Tomorrow: Ferry to Stornoway in the Outer Hebrides and ride to stay with a servas host for a couple of days. Catch the ferry back to Skye and then work my down the west coast and islands.