A Western Isles Update

People are so brilliant!!  As you know, I’m planning a cycle tour of 39 of Scotland’s Western Isles with Richard Dugdale, starting 28 April.  I think I’ve already mentioned the problem with camping, and the cost of B&B every night for 28 nights is not cheap, to say the least!  So I’ve been putting out feelers and the response has been terrific!

Through a network of friends, friends of friends, Warmshowers.org and Twitter (which was so helpful on my Cycle Round Britain’s Coast) we have so far been offered accommodation for 10 nights, from Bute to Mull and from Islay to Oban.  It’s adding a whole new dimension to the ride as we’ll be meeting several old friends and several complete strangers – it should be great!

So far we’re still a bit thin for Skye and the Outer Hebrides, but I’ll keep working on it.  If you, dear reader, know of anyone in those areas who might be able to help (also Mallaig and Ballachulish/Onich), please let me know.

Mentioning Skye reminds me of a trip about six and a half years ago, when Ian Hardy and I decided to do the two-day walk of the Trotternish Ridge. Naturally the weather turned rough, and the night camping on the tops was really bad – the rain and high winds meant we had to pitch the tent on sloping ground.  We spend all night slithering to the bottom end of the tent and then trying to shuffle back up again, discovering in the process that the groundsheet wasn’t waterproof any longer! But that wasn’t the best bit…

Back in Portree on a Saturday afternoon we went to a pub for a ‘refresher’ when in came a chap about 40 yrs old, clearly the ‘worse for wear’.  He looked me straight in the eye and said, in that distinctive Islands accent, “Everyone’s a homosexual.”  “Really?” I replied, not quite sure if that was the correct response.  “Why, are you one?” he asked. “No,” I said “But it was made legal a few years ago;  we’ve been out on the hill for two days and I just wondered if they’d made it compulsory whilst we were away.”

At this point his friend arrived, explaining that they were the rump of the Portree Football Team who had been over to Stornoway, where they were soundly beaten and were now back on Skye drowning their sorrows (I think they’d been working hard at this for a few hours).

We talked about life on Skye, then they said how rubbish the English were, so I tried to make a brave defence of my native country. Then one of them said “Right, what are you two girlies having to drink?” I said “I’ll have a pint of heavy and Ian will have a Talisker, thank you.”

“Did you no mind me calling you girlies?”

I said “Well, you’re buying a round – let’s get the drinks in and then we’ll discuss the girlie business!”

That seemed to go down well. We soon left for another pub, and then another, and just as I was thinking that we were going to end up inebriated, the first fella said “Sorry guys, we’re going to have to go home, we can’t stand up any longer.”  That was a relief.  They were good company but I didn’t relish the thought of a major hangover the day after!

Happy days!