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Ridden some of it, you would absolutely want some spare days in case of bad weather or wind. There's no shelter just about anywhere on the islands, and it's brutal when it's bad.
You must stay at Berneray Hostel, the most wonderful spot at the end of the world. And Mangersta bothy, if you book ahead.
All ferries information on the CalMac website. But be aware they are not infrequently cancelled due to bad weather.
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You need to plan around the ferries, yeah. Some are quite regular, some are only a few per day.
My friends and I did:
- day 0 - travel to Barra
- day 1 - Castlebay - Carinish, 94.68km, 4:58:48 moving time, 492m elevation
- day 2 - Carinish - about 11km from Tarbert, 65.87km, 3:44:24, 532m
then we went to Skye instead of on up to Stornoway. (Not sure if those distances include ferries)
On that basis I reckon it'd be doable in 4-5 days but we were lucky with the weather and as @platypus says you might want to factor some time in for that. Last time I went to Rum we got stuck in a bothy for a whole day (i.e. 2 nights) as the remnants of some horrid tropical cyclone were blowing in. The weather's more extreme on the Outer Hebs...
- day 0 - travel to Barra
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platypus
frankenbike
@speculoos
Has anyone ridden the Hebrides cycle route before from Barra to Lewis? Planning to do it in late May. It's only 185 miles, and so I was thinking I could do it over 4-5 days for a relaxed trip, but tinternet says 7 days which seems a lot... Any thoughts? Are ferries regular enough that I can just turn up with my bike and hop on, or is that something I need to plan around?
Also, apparently everyone does it south to north due to the wind. Has anyone ridden it north to south? The trains work out better for me in that direction based on dates!
Thanks