Here’s the plan for my trip to the Outer Hebrides… …and here’s a podcast I made about cycling the Hebridean Way prior to setting off: More episodes of The Cycling Europe Podcast can be found on this page of CyclingEurope.org. And finally, since you’ve made it this far, […]
Tonightโs instalment of this trip to the Outer Hebrides will be brought to you mainly through the medium of video. Someone asked why I didnโt add a narration to these videos. Well, it adds an extra level of complexity to do so but, as the wind today was light (anything above a gentle breeze causes horrible distortion on the iPhone microphone), Iโve added a few comments as youโll hear when you listen.
Of all the islands that I have so far visited on this trip, the island of North Uist has been the least unexpected. Thatโs not a criticism, just an acceptance that what I cycled through today gave me pretty much all the things that come to mind when […]
Things have turned. In one way for the worse but in others for the better. Not that what preceded day 5 had been bad to turn against but you know what I meanโฆ As I type Iโm holed up in a small – minute one might say (โsnugโ an estate agent would say) – wooden shed on the south-western edge of South Uist but let me take you back to the start of the day at the campsite on Benbeculaโฆ
Itโs been difficult to fault the Outer Hebrides so far (as you will continue to discover below). Only one very modern facet of life has let me down; mobile data coverage. Uploading text like this isnโt a problem. Photos need 3G and video needs 4G. Why am I telling you all this? Well, you may find that the usual mix of text, images and video (that you have become accustomed over the yearsโฆ) takes a few days to upload. Today, North Uist offered me a Vodafone 4G signal so, for the first tome since arriving on Barra, I was able to upload videos. You may want to look again at the previous two posts to watch those videos before you read this. (And come back to this post tomorrow or the day after for todayโs videoโฆ) On with the show!
I compared notes with my fellow wild campers this morning. None of us had slept particularly well on the dunes beside the beach at Vatersay. I think for all four of us it was a combination of the winds, a little rain but also middle age. When I opened the flap of the tent at around 6am the sun was shining, just. It had managed to pierce its way through a break in the thick clouds that were, on and off, continuing to deliver light showers. It was a sunrise, of sorts. What wasnโt โof sortsโ was the location. It is almost as if the tourist authorities behind the creation of the Hebridean Way had ordered a spectacular place for their ride to start and it had been delivered with enthusiasm.
