Hebrides 2019 - Days 3 & 4

Day 3

The Scotlish Highlands. Stopped to take some photos.

 

Just after this photo, a massive rain storm rolled in.

The photo above is just before the sky opened.

It was really bad. Torrential rain, and blowing a gale. The bike felt really vague and the wind could push you around pretty easily. The front end was very floaty. There was so much rain it was like riding in a river. There was no where to stop or shelter, and the road had no verge, just rocks so we couldn't pull over. Just had to push through it. It lasted about 50-60 minutes, but felt like many hours. Lots of practice on how to cope with side winds. We manage to make it through unscathed, thankfully.

Rok Straps are a good luggage mounting solution, and you can also slip a bottle of Bru underneath them easily too.

Stopped for the night at a weird hotel full of old people. There was a bar in the hotel and they served food too, but it closed within minute of us arriving (in the early evening, around 18:00). Luckily we had both stashed some snacks in our luggage.

Day 4

Up bright and early and heading to Ullapool. Filled up the bikes just as we came into town, heading for the ferry port. We were the first two vehicles on the CalMac ferry to Stornoway.

I'd emailed CalMac before hand to ask about the process for bringing a bike on the ferry. Nothing special I need to bring with me, but they did ask that I leave the bike in gear and if fitted, park on the centre stand. I only have a side stand, so they put a wedge under the bike as well as the usual chock for each wheel.

Then a big of upside down carpet over the saddle to protect it from the massive ratchet strap they use to strap the bike down to the deck. "That's not going anywhere".

The crossing was really calm, which was good. It took a couple of hours, so I had a kip. But I took a few photos first.

Once we arrived at Stornoway by buddy had an issue with his side stand switch coming loose which meant the bike wouldn't start as it thought the stand was down. Once we had figured out what the problem was, we could rotate the switch by hand to put it in the up position, then the bike would start, but we only worked that out once he's pushed the bike off the ferry by hand.

We had a quick look in Stornoway for a garage to try to find a suitable bolt for the one that had fallen out, but couldn't find anywhere. We zip tied the switch to the frame for the moment so it didn't get caught in anything.

We found a campsite next to a school, so get a couple of tent pitches there. The campsite is "Eilean Fraoich Camp Site". https://www.eileanfraoich.co.uk/

We both have Vango tents. I've had mine for several years and love it. I've used it on every camping trip I've make for the last decade. I did reproof it (for the third time) before coming on this journey. It's a Vango Banshee 200. The 200 means it's a"two man" tent, but that's a total lie. You would have to be very familiar with the other person. I see it more as a one man tent that has a little extra room for luggage. It's a hiking tent so it backs small and doesn't weigh much (about 1.5 kg).

I track my fuel usage (and servicing costs) on my phone in an app called "Road Trip". I use it religiously every time I stop for fuel. Looking at the stats, day 3 was the longest day so far in terms of distance travelled. It was 326 miles between refills. That doesn't include the distance before the first refill or after the last, so the total distance that day is higher.

 Whilst I've got a signal, I check the local weather report. It's not looking good for it being dry. :(

The blue figure for each day is the amount of area that will receive rain.