A Three Phase Day (July 9th)

As many of my days go, I started today with a vague semblance of a plan. After packing up my gear, I would return to Dunvegan Castle, tour said castle and garden (but mainly castle), and then hit the road for … well, that’s where the plan turns into a semblance of a plan. But more on that later.

It was raining pretty heavily when I arrived at the entrance to Dunvegan Castle & Gardens. Waiting for the rain to pass seemed like a futile effort so I grabbed my camera, bought my ticket and headed towards the castle.

I’ve mentioned in previous updates my preference for ruined castles over that of lived in castles. While that remains true, I’m not going to lie … Dunvegan Castle is rather fantastic. Unfortunately, like many non-ruined castles, Dunvegan doesn’t allow photography inside the castle walls so I have no photographic evidence as to its fantastic-ness. You’ll just have to come see for yourself.

I was on the Dunvegan grounds for about two hours and it essentially rained the entire time. That made getting photos that didn’t have water drops on the lens more than a little difficult. Perhaps even impossible. Truly unfortunate. It’s still a beautiful place. Plus, castles look more foreboding with overcast skies anyway. I mean really, who storms a castle on a sunny day.

With my castle tour complete and still an unknown number of kilometres ahead of me, I returned to my bike and subsequently the road where the rain would escort much of my ride. My route back south was going to require a certain level of backtracking which was simply inevitable – for much of the route there’s only one road to take. However, for obvious reasons I didn’t want to backtrack the full route so the ride began along an alternate road which added about 15 km to the ride. The two routes would meet again at Sligachan and from there backtracking to Broadford was unavoidable. As rides go, the alternate route through Portree was pretty easy. Surprisingly easy. Sure there were a lot of hills but I feel that it was an easier ride than had I backtracked the whole way. Plus, it was new to me.

In the end there ended up being three phases to today’s ride:
1. Dunvegan to Portree (featuring two hours of steady rain);
2. Portree back to Broadford (featuring two more hours of steady rain);
3. Broadford to, well … I’m kind of in the middle of nowhere but I’m just east of Kyle of Lochalsh. I think I’m actually in the small community of Reraig.

My lunch stop for today was at the end of Phase One in Portree which, much like Broadford, is also home to a Co-operative grocery store. I happily stocked up on buns and sliced chicken again. I say stocked up but in reality I ate it all before hitting the road again.

Phase two went without incident other than periods of very heavy rain – you know, to break up the monotony of the light rain. Of course, when you combine the heavy rain with fairly heavy traffic and large puddles along the side of the shoulder-less road, well … it made for a challenging but again, incident free, ride to Broadford. That said, I was more than a little relieved when I arrived back at the sheltered gas bar at the Broadford Co-operative.

Mercifully the rain stopped for the final and shortest phase of the day. While riding for four hours in steady (and frequently very heavy) rain was rather unpleasant, the relief felt during that final rain-free phase was overwhelming. Apart from packing up wet gear, starting a day in the rain is better than ending the day in the rain.

It was a short ride from Broadford to Reraig but it was long and surprisingly warm enough to somewhat dry my jacket and pants. They’re now just very damp. Yes, that’s a VAST improvement. I was literally wringing out streams of water from my Gore-Tex jacket when I arrived in Broadford.

The ride to Reraig passed through Kyle of Lochalsh and it wasn’t entirely without adventure. I believe I’ve mentioned the narrow Scotland roads. Well, when oncoming cars decide to overtake other cars there isn’t much (i.e. any) room for cyclists – or anyone else. As you might have guessed, that’s what happened. Three cars actually. I don’t know if they were travelling together but they all pulled out to pass which left zero room for me. Seriously, zero. I tend to keep my eye on any oncoming traffic as far ahead as possible. As such, I somewhat saw the situation coming. Fortunately, all of this happened at a rare spot where there was a grass “shoulder” to my left – typically the “shoulders” have been either completely non-existent or lined with large stones. With my only options being either escaping onto the grass or becoming part of the grill of an oncoming vehicle, I opted for the former. I mean, I’ve already reached my quota for wrecked bikes. In the end, no harm was done but I wasn’t at all impressed. I was significantly more impressed several kilometres later when I had stopped to check the map. As I did, a driver stopped along the side of a traffic circle and asked if I was alright. Apparently, he was travelling behind me and saw the cars nearly hit me and, when he saw me again, decided to check in. I’d repeat what he called said drivers but this is a family-friendly website.

From there I continued over the very impressive Skye Bridge which officially returned me from the Isle of Skye to the mainland. According to my map there was a campground not too much further down the road. Yes, my goal was to wild camp but I like to keep my options open.

As I made my way towards the campground I passed a small car park (complete with picnic tables). There was also clearly enough room for a tent. Upon seeing that, I was 95% sure I had found my home for the night. That said, the campground was literally 250 metres around the corner so I decided to check it out. The price/value of the campground was what I expected. The only thing they really had to offer over wild camping was washrooms and drinking water. At the moment I was only in the need of the latter. As such, I pedalled over to the drinking water tap and topped up. From there I returned to the car park to setup my tent.

Much like my last wild camping experience, the winds picked up dramatically late in the day and are absolutely howling at the moment. Fortunately, unlike my last wild camping experience, it isn’t pouring. Yet. Apparently it’s supposed to rain overnight. Shocking. With the increase in wind strength since setting up my tent, I’m glad that I set up beside some bushes in the hopes of it blocking at least some of the wind. I don’t know if that plan was actually successful, but I’d hate to think how much abuse my tent would be taking right now if not “protected” at least a little by those bushes. Seriously, my tent is getting really whipped around. And yes, I’m using the stake I found to connect the lone guy line to one side of my tent. At the moment, all the stakes are still holding firm but I may have to double check them before calling it a night.

I’m not going to lie, when the rain stopped for my final hour of riding, I really started to look forward to some hot mediocre pasta to end a cold and very wet day. However, with the wind blowing like it is, well … there will be no hot dinner tonight.

As you might suspect, after four hours of pedalling in very heavy rain, my panniers were exposed to more than a little moisture today. And those panniers aren’t waterproof. Is everything wet? No. I’ve taken some precautions in an attempt to prevent that. But everything is pretty damp. Everything. Including things in Ziploc bags. How is that even possible? Okay, sure … I probably didn’t seal them tightly. Sigh. Given the forecast for the next few days, I don’t anticipate drying out soon.

The calm waters (and low tide) that I thought I was camping beside have now turned into high tide, whitecap filled waters. Between that and the highway on the other side of me, it is shaping up to be a noisy night. But at the moment I’m warm, dry, and have had something to eat. Translation: It’s been a good day.

Today’s totals:
Distance travelled: 101.87 km
Ride time: 5:23.04
Average speed: 18.92 km/h
Maximum speed: 49.25 km/h