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| Mountains, lochs, and winding paths - The Badger Divide - Incredible |
The offical Badger Divide joins up some of the great long distance paths in Scotland, starting in Inverness and finishing in Glasgow. It's ridden as a self supported endurance race over 2 days. We planned for a slightly more leisurely 4 day adventure (not actually leisurely at all!).
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| Communting to work in the morning, Note home-made frame and seatpost bags: Amazing what you can do with an Ikea shower curtain and chopping board! (I'm quite proud of these) |
Thursday saw us on our train to Inverness (after considerable train stress - I hate you Scotrail). Premier inn however are much more accommodating to cyclists and happily let us store our bikes in our rooms.
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| Bikes in the lift at Premier inn |
After pigging out on breakfast and pinching an emergency cinnamon bagel we set off for the start of the Great Glen Way.
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| Leaving Inverness along the Caledonian Canal |
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| If you'd seen this sign you'd have stopped too! |
Carrie and Louise set off about an hour ahead of us the theory being we'd catch them up, this didn't account for my penchant for a cafe. About 20km down the Great Glen Way and less than 2 hours in we spotted a sign saying 'cake'. Of course we stopped. Apparently the highest working croft in Scotland, we were warned to move to the veranda if the pig came and interfered!
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| Crofting cake break |
The descent into Drumnadrochit was a little steeper than I was prepared for. With a high saddle, loaded bike and clipped pedals I nervously edged down the trail. In the village centre we located Carrie and Louise at another cafe, of course it would be rude not to join in!
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| Drumnadrochit - bonus cafe time |
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| leaving Drumnadrochit |
The following sections of the Great Glen Way involved some steep climbs. I was looking forward finding the 'viewcatcher' monument on the next section. We kept telling each other that it would be just at the top of the next hill. Of course in the end it turned out to be in the bottom of a valley. In my head we were going to stop here and spend some vanity time capturing 'the perfect selfie' unfortunately the Scottish weather had other ideas. We took some quick snaps in the rain before heading on.
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| Messing around at the 'view catcher' |
We once again bumped into Carrie and Louise coming in the opposite direction. After a moment of confusion it transpired that a section of the low road was closed and they were heading up for the high road. In the end we went low road anyway.
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| Speeding along the Great Glen Way |
The sun came out again for the final section into Fort Augustus, providing many opportunities for photo especially at 'podium rock'. Day 1 (according to Strava) was almost 6 hours moving time and over 1,400m of climbing. I was very ready to reach the hostel, I can't imagine what it would be like to do this as part of the race, you'd be less than half way through day 1!
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| Podium Rock: self timer fun |
Day 2 began with the infamous Corrieyiarack Pass. One of General Wade's military roads, rising 800m from the valley floor it joins Fort Augustus to Loch Laggan. I think we were all a bit nervous of the pass (I was anyway). Would it be ride-able by mere mortals, or would we end up pushing to the top?
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| Only 19km to the other side but with 800 meter straight up, feeling nervous at the beginning of the pass |
Our accommodation for the next night was aptly named 'middle of nowhere B&B' they served dinner at 7pm, and there wasn't any other option for food in the valley, the race was on...
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| Cheeky snack break 400m up |
Slow and steady was the name of the game, on the pass. We gained meter after meter, getting ever more impressive views down the valley. About half way up Caroline and I overtook Carrie and Louise. Little did we know this would be the last we'd see of them...
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| Heading off the top of the pass, (this picture might imply I got to the top before Caroline, which definitely was not the case!) |
The higher we climbed the colder it got and the stronger the headwind. At the summit of the pass it was freezing, so rather than waiting we piled on all the layers, took a quick victory snap and headed down.
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| The top of Corrieyiarack Pass, feeling proud (and also cold) |
By the time we reached Melgarve Bothy the sun was back out and sheltered from the wind we began to warm up a little.
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| Warming up on out of the wind |
Unsure where Carrie and Lousie were, we decided to carry on until we found somewhere with phone reception. Of course being the Scottish Highlands, this was quite a long way. By the shores of Loch Laggan we managed to get in touch, they'd had bike troubles and had headed to the bike shop in Wolftrax, some miles off course. Unsure if the bike would be fixed in time to continue or not, this would put dinner chances at serious risk!
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| Melgarve bothy |
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| Quick stop in Ardverikie Estate |
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| Spey Reservior |
Eventually we arrived at the creepy shooting lodge in Corrour (actually we accidentally went right up the drive to the mansion; we quickly ran away worried we might be shot). In-spite of the headwinds we'd made good time, it looked like we'd arrive in time for dinner in fact we might even have time to shower first (Yes!). Feeling positive we headed around the edge of Loch Ossian, until we reached the path that would take us over to Loch Rannoch.
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| Lochan na h-Earba |
Unfortunately this turned out to be less path and more bog. We pushed our bikes up hill through bog. Suddenly I was worried we'd overestimated. 3 hours and 20 km to dinner is very achievable if you can ride, but if we had to push all the way to Rannoch we'd be much slower.
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| hike-a-bike in a bog :-( |
Happily after about 1km of pushing we joined up with a path call 'road to the isles' which turned out to be a very cyclable track, dinner and shower was very much back on the cards. Of course if we'd looked closer at the map we might have continued a few km down the lochside track and joined the 'road to the isles' at the very start. Tired brains don't always make good choices.
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| View from 'Peter's Rock' |
Racing down the track we got to Bridge of Gaur in good time, and then realised our major screw up. We had no idea where the B&B was, and of course zero phone reception. We did some worried cycling around, and at the last house, still no B&B, however a nice man pointed us back to the main road where we found the nights accommodation, still with 30 mins to shower and change before dinner. Phew!
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| Big grins: we will arrive in time for dinner |
Carrie and Louise had managed to get a message through, they had got the bike fixed but it had taken some time and they'd stop overnight in Laggan. It was a real shame not to have Carrie and Louise with us. I consoled myself by eating their extra puddings for dinner. Day 2 was over 8 hours moving time and 1800m of climbing, I was exhausted.
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| Day 3 Loch Rannoch shortly before the rain |
Day 3 saw the weather take a turn for the miserable, the tracks from Loch Rannoch over to Glen Lyon were a mix of nice single track and atv track and more great scenery. We stopped in Bridge of Balgie for coffee and cake, after 'no cafe Saturday' we were making up for lost time. I also took the opportunity to restock my dwindling supply of jelly babies. (this cafe is where I'd previous waited 3 hours for the RAC to turn up on another trip, the lady even remembered me!)
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| Crossing into Glen Lyon |
The weather really set in as we headed up the Lyon valley, my legs were pretty tired and I just couldn't match pace with Caroline. So in the interest of keeping warm we agreed to go at our own speeds and re group at a cafe in Killin. This was going well, I was plodding on at my own pace over the pass and down to the River Locahy, until Disaster. Cows on the road. With young calves. $&!^ !!! I considered my options. I studied my Garmin. Tere was a way around passing through the farm buildings on the left. I set off through the farm, successfully circumnavigating the danger cows, but did end up being chased by a farm dog.
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| Sustrans Route 7 near Strathyre |
A few miles further on and the sun came out, I found Caroline waiting in a bench just outside Kilin and swapped cow-avoidance strategies, (I discovered Caroline is both braver and stupider than me). In Kilin we tucked into Cafe number 2, before heading on to Sustrans route 7 taking us to our final B&B in Callendar.
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| Dropping into Callendar |
Day 4 saw us heading down the Rob Roy Way and then the West Highland Way to it's end point in Milngavie. Somewhere along the way to Drymen Caroline's hands went alarmingly white with the cold, and I felt a bit more guilty about borrowing her gloves :-s
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| Dodging walkers on the West Highland Way |
After a quick warm up and lunch stop in Drymen, we headed on to down the west highland way, passing through about 101 gates and about as many hikers. Eventually we found ourselves in Milngavie, and after a tiny bit of navigation at the southern end of the west highland way. Victory photos complete we jumped on the train back to Edinburgh, what a trip!
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| End of West Highland Way |
We eventually heard from Carrie and Louise after they'd overnighted in Glen Lyon without phone or internet signal. They had made it to Kilin together and Carrie had continued all the way to Drymen! what an effort! Huge thanks to the both of them for organising the trip, it was tough but amazing, the only downside was that we didn't manage to finish all together.
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| Badger Divide approximate route |
Bikepacking is an incredible way of moving through the landscape, can't wait for more!
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| Bikepacking - Love it. |
