Highland Odyssey 2009

Hi went on a trip with my friend john (in pics) 3 weeks ago. We went from Inverness, to Ullapool, to Poolewe, to Achnasheen, and then back to Inverness. 4 day trip, covering 180 miles. It was totally epic, I broke my chain and we both destroyed a set of brake pads. We stayed at proper camp sites 3 of the 4 nights and got very lucky with the midges and the weather. Has anyone else done any riding in the Highlands? I totally reccomend it if only for the buzz of going down hills so steep you feel like your going to melt!

Here's as few pics:

ready for the off

Amazing resivoir

At the bottom of the Braes of Ullapool

Sheep

Achnasheen railway station

Good effort, some beautiful parts of the country there. Not toured up that way myself yet, but will be sure to.

Looks excellent. I hope to make it up there this year too but geared.

Nice photos.

Looks beautiful.

Anymore pics? This thread is worthless without more pics!

I might be doing the highest road in the UK ( Bealach na Ba) that takes you into Applecross this year, then a ride around the peninsula.

Should be good.

^this thread is TOTALLY NOT worthless without 'more pics'!!!.....
This is sooo inspiring!
@Bmxconan ...woaw, i used to travel those places as a wee boy! had forgotten how beautiful it is up there... You've got me all fired up to plan a trip myself!
Tell us morea bout your adventure... were you fixed or SS? either which way...a challenge well played ;-)
Cheers fella!

good to see the motherland looking its best
getting bit of nostalgia looking at those
glad you enjoyed it?
no americans i take it since they are boycotting?

nice pics, it looks beautiful there.

... your beard is shit though :P

Thats not me it's my mate john. We were both fixed all the way, john was running 44-17 and i was running 48 - 16. We got off and pushed 3 times - 2 times were on 12% gradients though. We were both surprised that running fixed wasn't actually that impractical, you just dig in on the uphills and take lot's of wee breaks. Some of our mates went camping in applecross at same time as we were away and said it was amazing, we just didn't have the time to go over there.
My chain snapped coming off down a really big hill and I was really lucky not to completely destroy it or my tyre, in hind-sight that was our only mistake, not taking spare chain links or spare tyres. Riding with packs on was fine, we just took the minimal amount of gear and tiny 1 man tents, my canon 10d was a bit of a burden though. We had a killer afternoon swimming in a river beetween lochewe and achnasheen too. It didn't take any time for us to recover, no sore bits at all and we went out on the piss the Wednesday night when we came back to Aberdeen.

I'll post some more pics up today / tomorrow

only joking, its a quality beard im sure :P

you must have horse legs to get up those hills on 48-16! i cant even get up denmark hill on mine, but i have matchstick legs.

I'm not exactly the typical build of a lean, king of the mountains type - i've got a wee paunch, way to close to thirty for comfort and I'm not exactly clean living either. We're both just stubborn I guess and we've both been riding BMX's regulary since our teens, so fixed isn't too different and I guess we must have an ok level of fitness. Like I said we were both surprised at how viable fixies were for touring.

I'm a big fan, hence my name. I've wild camped quite a bit too, spot the tent:

i drove this with a camper a few years back and loved the area. i'd ride it in the bat of an eye!

great effort lads. it looks too much fun

The highlands are incredible. Any riding up there is so much fun.
There is a fixed tour in Europe and recent ride on the Great Glen Way on here
www.adequateriders.blogspot.com

That's funny I've met sandy a few times (epicness in lochness posts), and he works for the same magazine as my mate does. He's a top bloke. He's got a funny photo blog on facebook too.

SandyCarson.com is indeed the main man. Bike riding, photography and plenty of humour.
Which mag? Dig?

Aye dig yeh. He totally used to be my hero when i was young - haha. Been out on the town with him, likesay nice guy. Fred Murray's my pal that works for them and I've met ricky a bunch of times.