High speed trains from Devon to London are all restricted these days in terms of the number of bikes they can carry, and of course all bikes have to be booked in advance. Because there were eight of us going up from Devon and a further two from Reading, we had to go to London on two separate trains.

Michael took Tao, Eliot, Craig and John with him on the 1521 train from Newton Abbot, which got to London at 1850. We used the opportunity to take some video footage on the train. Julian followed us up on the 1627 train, taking Luke and Oliver with him and collecting Nick and Matthew from Reading at 1909. When they arrived at London Paddington at 1955 the rest of us met them on the platform and helped them with the unloading process.

The reason we were travelling to London when our tour was in Scotland was because this year we had decided to try using the Sleeper train from London to Scotland, which we thought might be more fun than spending a whole day on the train to Scotland as we have done in previous years. So now we had to take the bikes on the London Underground to Euston station, where all the sleeper trains depart for London.

We had originally planned to all take the 21.10 sleeper train to Fort William with our bikes, but an error by a BR travel clerk at Torquay meant the bunks were never booked before she resigned her post, so we had to change the arrangements at the last minute. We loaded all our 10 bikes onto the 21.10 sleeper train as planned, but we ourselves had to take the later 23.30 sleeper train to Glasgow, which left us with a rather annoying two hour wait at Euston. Meanwhile Fergus and Jamie boarded the Fort William sleeper at Crewe at 23.34, added their two bikes to our ten and slept in the two bunks that were still available for us on that train.

Eventually our sleeper was ready to leave Euston, and we settled into our bunks for an interesting travel experience.

(No notes were written for today's ride at the time, so this report has been written in 2021. Please let Michael know if you remember any other details from the ride)

Our sleeper train from London arrived at Glasgow Central station at 0650, and whilst technically we were allowed to stay in the cabins until 8.00, we had to get out by 0715 as we had another train to catch. We still managed to find time for a quick video shot of one of our cabins.

Our next train left from a different station in Glasgow, Queen Street station, and because we didn't have our bikes we had to walk the half mile through the streets of Glasgow to get there.
It was probably 8.00 when we arrived, and as soon as our train was ready we boarded the 0812 train to Fort William. This proved an interesting journey, partly because the route took us over Rannoch Moor which makes it one of the most scenic rail routes in the UK, and partly because several of the youngsters insisted on having a go with the camcorder. This gave us some interesting footage which captured the atmosphere well.

By the time we arrived at Fort William at 1149 the forecast rain was beginning to spread in, so we actually needed coats as soon as we got off the train. But we were very happy to find the remaining four members of our team - Fergus, Jamie, Kieron and Alasdair - waiting for us at the end of the platform with all our bikes. Fergus and Jamie had boarded the London sleeper train to Fort William at Crewe, added their two bikes to our ten, arrived at Fort William at 10:25, unloaded all twelve bikes and guarded them carefully until our arrival. Kieron and Alasdair met us at the station as they had been on holiday with their family in Scotland.

We took a brief look around Fort William, which was interesting as there are several good quality outdoor equipment shops selling top of the range waterproof gear. After buying whatever food we needed for lunch and supper we rode the 2.7 miles to Glen Nevis hostel, parked up our bikes there and decided who was going to attempt the climb of Ben Nevis and who was not.

There is an easy path up the mountain that starts right opposite the youth hostel, so the plan had been to walk to the top during the afternoon. But there was a lot of low cloud and drizzle around today, so some didn't fancy walking at all. In the end eight of us set off for the climb, the remainder choosing to stay dry in the hostel.

The walkers got about halfway up before they hit thick fog, so they decided it would be safer to return to the hostel. We still got some good views and a sense of achievement from reaching the large lake halfway to the top.

After showers and food we spent the remainder of the evening getting to know each other over some games of pool in the hostel common room.

(No notes were written for today's ride at the time, so this report has been written in 2021. Please let Michael know if you remember any other details from the ride)

We left the hostel very early at around 8.30am, returned down the road to Fort William and then navigated to the Road to the Isles, otherwise known as the A830 to Mallaig. We stopped at the grocery store at Corpach to stock up with lunch and supper.

We followed the road along Loch Eil to Glenfinnan, site of the monument at the head of Loch Shiel, stopping there probably around 11.30. It is the monument to the clansmen who followed Prince Charles Edward Stuart when he raised his standard there in 1745 in the third attempt to reinstate the Stuart kings on the throne of Britain and Ireland. A few of us climbed to the top, which was quite scary for some in view of the lack of barrier, but the views were excellent. We could also see the Glenfinnan viaduct - the railway line which runs alongside the road all the way from Fort William to Mallaig.

We were racing to catch the last ferry from Mallaig to the Isle of Skye, which left at 1645 but had a latest checkin time of 1615. We stopped for refreshments near Lochailort, then stopped again at Arisaig so that Michael could make a telephone call from the phone box - we were running late and Michael wanted to warn the ferry company not to let the last ferry leave without us. And this is the moment when disaster struck.

There was a very long layby opposite the post office and café: the group stopped near the middle and the phone box was at the near end. Michael took his bag containing all the important documents for the tour, including ferry and rail tickets and of course his wallet, to the phone box. He got out the tour info sheet to look up the phone number he needed, but needed to get something else from his bike. He ran back to the bikes to get what he needed, leaving the bag in the phone box for a few seconds. By the time he returned to the box, the bag and all its contents was gone! Michael went back to the bikes in case he had absentmindedly taken it back again and left it there, but then the lads reported that they had seen 2 or 3 new age travellers walking out of the box with a bag! They were looking inside to see what was in it and ran off down the road. Our youngsters really hadn't realised it was Michael's bag!

So now we had a very big problem. But the immediate problem was not to miss the ferry and to somehow get on it without tickets. We sped along to Mallaig as fast as we could along the twisty, hilly little road, with cloud increasing and some unpleasant rain. Somehow we arrived only a few minutes after the 16:15 arrival deadline. Michael then entered into negotiations with the ticket office. Amazingly, they were quickly able to look up the details of our ticket purchase, which was made by fax on 9th July, and we were allowed to travel. Caledonian MacBrayne are clearly very efficient.

We arrived at Armadale on the Isle of Skye by 17:15 and quickly found the youth hostel there, which was just around the corner from the ferry jetty. This was a new hostel for our tours, replacing Garramore which had sadly closed last year. After showers and meal preparation most of the group played chasing games in the extensive grounds around the hostel, running all around it and also slipping down through a wooded area into the road below and running back around to the hostel drive.

Poor Michael had to spend most of the evening on the telephone. First he rang the police, who sadly reported that a camp of New Age Travellers not far from Arisaig had been causing countless problems in the area. They were most unhelpful, saying it was very unlikely the items would be recovered - it sounded like the police were scared of them! He then had to ring all his banks and credit card companies to cancel his cards. Finally he had to plan how to manage the next two ferries without tickets, and most worryingly, how to get home on the trains without tickets! It was all a bit of a nightmare.

(No notes were written for today's ride at the time, so this report has been written in 2014 from memory. Please let Michael know if you remember any other details from the ride)

Midges were a serious problem as we waited outside Armadale hostel for everyone to be ready to leave - and for Michael to finish taking video clips. The hostel was nothing special, but the views across to the mainland were impressive. And it was exciting to be on our first island of the tour.

We spent the morning riding across the island through Isleornsay , stopping at Broadford to buy lunch, supper and breakfast and then settling down to eat lunch on some convenient picnic tables by the sea. This was an enjoyable stop where the younger members had a lot of fun running around chasing each other. Fergus, who seemed to have plenty of spare carrying capacity on his rack, had been nominated to carry two cartons of the group milk, although he did make a little fuss about having to carry so much.

Riding around the coast we then stopped at the only café in the area, the Piper's Moon café at Luib, which we have used on previous tours to the area. A number of tame sparrows sat on the fence as we walked in. There were gifts and souvenirs on sale as well as drinks and cakes - Oliver bought a Haggis tooth!

Riding around the coast road to Sconser we had a good view of the salmon farm in Loch Ainort, with huge fish leaping out of the enclosed waters. We got to Sconser pier a little early for our ferry, which gave Luke time to try some crabbing with a line that just wasn't long enough to reach the water - he said he hoped the crabs would jump up to it, but none seemed interested as he and Craig dangled it off the edge of the pier.

The weather wasn't really warm or inviting, so instead of standing on deck to enjoy the crossing to the Isle of Raasay, most of the group huddled together in the passenger cabin.

Raasay is a small island that has only one shop and a few houses. When we arrived we had to ride two and a half miles which involved a climb through a forest, but when we reached the hostel at the top we were all stunned by the location. The hostel itself is a small wooden building with a cosy members' kitchen and common room, and the views across the sea to Skye were unparalleled.

We were sleeping in the annexe building on the ground behind the main hostel. This was divided into two sections: we had one half, the other was occupied by a group of geologists who seemed to want to go to bed when the sun went down and get up when it rose.

Mealtime in the small kitchen was somehow more enjoyable than any other hostel we had visited. People were bustling in every direction to cook their food on the small number of stoves available. Some didn't bother and just ate food straight from the tin. The atmosphere was really happy and friendly after the day's long ride.

When the washing up had been done on a rota basis in the single sink and complaints from the geologists about the noise level had been dealt with, Michael started organising the evening activity - walking up the island's impressive mountain, Dun Caan, which looks remarkably like a volcano from some angles. For some reason half of the group felt they had done quite enough exercise for one day and were content to settle down by the fire in the common room: Julian generously agreed to supervise them!

So Fergus, Jamie, Tao, Kieron, Alasdair and John joined Michael on the walk, and for them the rewards were great indeed. We cycled the couple of miles to the start of the path, then walked up to the various staging points. There were glorious sunset views over the Sound of Raasay. We reached a couple of lakes near the summit that again offered fabulous views. Once we reached the top we could see all around the small island - to Skye, even back to the mainland. The silence was breath-taking, only broken by Tao doing his echo joke.

It was after dark when we returned, and by this time Julian, along with the warden, was panicking about our late return. Michael explained that it takes a certain amount of time to climb the mountain and return and there was no way we were going to come back early and miss the summit.

(No notes were written for today's ride at the time, so this report has been written in 2014 from memory. Please let Michael know if you remember any other details from the ride)

At some point yesterday evening Eliot managed to drop Michael's camcorder battery charger. It looked OK afterwards, but it had one minor problem: it wouldn't charge batteries any more. So when Michael awoke this morning expecting to find his batteries fully charged, they were in fact close to empty. So the only shots we were able to capture today were in the hostel dormitory. Michael was not amused, as there was nowhere anywhere near our location that would stock a replacement charger. He did spend much of the day trying to think of solutions however.

Our immediate problems however were how to ride 33 miles to the far end of Skye in time to catch the only ferry to the Outer Hebrides at 18.20. The first part of solving that problem involved catching an early ferry from Raasay back to Sconser - we either went for the 8.00 or 9.00 ferry, probably the 9.00. There was a rush to get everyone ready in time, and then we had to make a mad dash down the hill to the ferry terminal. Julian went ahead with several to make sure the ferry didn't leave without us, so they had cycled down the ramp and were waiting impatiently while the ferryman was trying to leave. Alasdair was last to arrive: he raced down the ramp at high speed with his usual wide grin all over his face. As Julian watched he realised Alisdair was showing no signs of braking or slowing down - and he was heading straight for the back end of one of the cars on the ferry. At the last minute he reached out and "clotheslined" him off his bike, thereby bringing him to a halt. His bike, however, changed directing and crashed into Michael's bike, and that caused a problem with his derailleur that continued for several days. That moment lives in Julian's memory to this day.

We rode to Portree to buy lunch, supper and breakfast, ate lunch probably in Portree itself, and then took the shorter, more direct route to Uig so we could be sure of catching the ferry. We were supposed to arrive at Uig no later than 17:50 in time to catch the three times a week 18:20 ferry to the isle of Harris. but we made such good progress that we even had time for a group photo on the approach to Uig, kindly taken by Luke since Michael's camcorder was out of action.

Again we had booked the tickets in advance, but since they had been stolen at Arisaig Michael had to do a bit of negotiation again to let us on without the tickets. The Mallaig Office had kindly printed off receipts for us for all the ferry journeys, however, since nearly all the ferries in Scotland are run by Caledonian MacBrayne, and this made the process quite easy.

The enormous ferry took an hour and three quarters to travel the 28 miles out to the Isle of Harris on the Outer Hebrides. We made good use of the facilities on board, which included a restaurant and cafe, so we were ready for action when the ferry arrived on time at Tarbert at 20:05. Unfortunately, however, the bright sunshine of the morning had now given way to cloud and heavy rain. And we still had seven miles to cycle to the hostel at Stockinish!

This was really not a very pleasant ride, with the road twisting left and right through the barren terrain in cold rain and descending darkness. It was with very great relief that we finally arrived at Stockinish hostel, cold, wet and tired.

The hostel was very simple, but the whole area was totally still and quiet, unlike any place we had ever stayed before - although the bad weather and our late arrival meant we didn't get much chance to appreciate that until next morning.

(No notes were written for today's ride at the time, so this report has been written in 2014 from memory. Please let Michael know if you remember any other details from the ride)

Michael discovered this morning that if he put a camcorder battery on charge for a few minutes he was able to get up to a minute or so of video footage from the camcorder before having to charge it again. Using this method he managed to start taking some video footage again today, although of course the clips were fairly short in length, and he could only take shots where there was mains electricity available for the charger.

Everyone just wanted to sit around this morning and lap up the tranquillity of this beautiful place. The landscape was barren, even birds seemed to be absent, but the desolate sea views would remain with us for a very long time as we sat by the edge of Loch Stockinish.

The ride today took us northwards back to Tarbert, up a long and nasty hill and then on through the Isle of Harris to the Isle of Lewis. We probably bought lunch from Tarbert, tackled the big climb, enjoyed the long downhill and then ate lunch near Bogha Glas with great views to Loch Shiphoit, 19 miles into the ride.

After another nine miles of cycling we stopped for afternoon refreshments at the Post Office and Shop, Balallan, now on the Isle of Lewis. Here the shop owner allowed Michael to plug in his charger so he managed to get a few more video clips. The final fifteen miles were fairly featureless, with plenty of peat bogs and forests. When we finally arrived in Stornoway, the largest town of the Outer Hebrides, the environment felt distinctly urban and nothing like we had expected for such a remote place.

There is no youth hostel in Stornoway, so Michael had arranged for us to stay in a guest house. Normally we would expect to have to split such a large group over several guest houses, but as luck would have it this year the Tower guest house happened to be totally empty on the night we were staying, so we had 5 twin rooms, 2 single rooms and 2 folding beds! The price was very reasonable at £16 per person. Mrs Barr was also able to offer half price evening meals for everyone - £4.50 each. We even got coffee in the TV room after the meal. Everyone enjoyed a night of relative luxury for a change, and yet we were about as far from home as it is possible to get in the UK.

Tao, who was sharing a room with Olly, was impressed to find tea-making facilities in his room and decided to treat Olly and himself to a little luxury. There was no table available to pour the tea, so when he had boiled the kettle he sat on the bed, clasped the first cup firmly between his legs and started pouring. The cup only reached half full when something went wrong and the boiling water overshot the cup and went all over Tao's thighs. He was wearing cycling shorts so they kept the boiling water pressed tightly against his skin, and because the cup was also half-full of water and his hands were full he couldn't get up. He just had to sit there enduring the pain while his skin was scalded - it was so bad that the skin started peeling soon afterwards.

(No notes were written for today's ride at the time, so this report has been written in 2014 from memory. Please let Michael know if you remember any other details from the ride)

After a luxurious breakfast in the Tower Guest House at 32 James Street, Stornoway and a leisurely start we had the rest of the morning free to wander around Stornoway, so we called in to a few souvenir shops and had enjoyable refreshments in an excellent cafe.

We had to check in at the ferry terminal by 13.25 so we could load our bikes onto the 14.10 departure for Ullapool. It was very relaxed and pleasant waiting in the afternoon sunshine. Michael got access to a power point and so was able to take several video shots in between frequent charges. This was the biggest ferry yet, partly because it covers one of the longest ferry routes in Scotland. Tao had taken some sea-sickness tablets as he doesn't like boats at all and was very concerned that he would feel ill on such a long journey. Once again things had been sorted out so that we didn't need our printed tickets.

The journey took 2 hours 40 minutes. This ferry had many places to sit and relax in comfort, and various restaurants to keep us all fed. We even had a local entertainer who sang Gaelic songs without music - Alasdair was rather unimpressed.

We arrived at Ullapool at 16:50, just before the youth hostel opened, although it took us a little while to get off the ferry as we had to wait for all the cars to go first. Ullapool hostel was situated on Shore Street overlooking the picturesque Little Loch Broom. It was a great hostel with a very cosy dormitory. We had plenty of time to cook our meals, and then made use of the gift shop late opening hours to go and do a little more souvenir shopping before bedtime.

(No notes were written for today's ride at the time, so this report was written from memory in 2014. Please let Michael know if you remember any other details from the ride)