Hebridean Way: 17th-20th May 2019 - company sought!

Great stuff. Looks fantastic. Hope you made it to the end!

Well in the end this was less of a drama than I'd anticipated. Two falafel pittas, some honey roast nuts and a couple of energy bars were enough to get round, and without the headwind it was a much easier day, despite being half as long again as the Saturday. Water refills came courtesy of a couple of taps on the side of buildings, and there were even a couple of places open, had I really been in dire straits. I also noticed that further north on Lewis a couple of people had honesty boxes at the end of their driveways containing home baking and water. This could have been pure altruism, but I suspect having passing cyclists or hikers knock on your door a couple of times a day, every day, also becomes wearing after a while.

Harris was absolutely stunning, and with that came a bit of early climbing. I left the bunkhouse bang on 8am, and arrived at Callanish about 12:30, having been pretty disciplined about staying on the bike. There was a bit of dicking about here when I realised the standing stones I'd stopped at were not the standing stones, so I probably didn't really get going again until around 2pm.

There was a bit of rain just before the bail-out point, but I was still feeling good enough (and had enough food and water) by the time I got to the junction that I didn't really give it a second thought. The last hour or so up to the Butt of Lewis is constantly rolling, and with some heavier rain coming in it did sap my energy a little. There were a couple of other riders when I got to the top who were getting a shuttle bus back to Stornoway, but at £66 with only 46km to get back I demurred.

I was glad to have made it as the Butt of Lewis is beautiful, and also featured some of the only blue sky I'd seen all day. In the end I left there a bit before 5pm, so was back in Stornoway for 7pm.

Even had enough in the legs to make relatively light work of the ride back to Inverness the following day.

https://strava.app.link/XGxryZC0RW
https://strava.app.link/BCTCJ6F0RW

Harris

1 Attachment

More of this

1 Attachment

Lunch

1 Attachment

Sad standing stone is sad

1 Attachment

Butt of Lewis

1 Attachment

Moar

1 Attachment

Lighthouse!

1 Attachment

Arrivee

1 Attachment

Chapeau!

It looks incredible. Nicely done.

where did you get a falafel wrap on lewis?!

Pittas from the Co-op at Sollas on North Uist, falafel mix from the Leverburgh shop where I panic-bought whatever I could, 15 minutes before closing on the Saturday!

The mizzle kept them nice and moist until they were needed.

good to know, I'm on harris now :~)

Nice! I had a great feed at The Anchorage in Leverburgh. 10/10 would bang again.