There Can Be Only One (July 8th)

Considering the challenges of last night’s tent setup, the night went about as well as could be expected. Or hoped. The shower curtain on the floor did an admirable job of keeping most of my sleeping pad dry. And the tent was up to the challenge of holding strong against the relentless wind and rain. I’m not sure how much help guylines would’ve been but I’ll have to keep that in mind for the next windy set up. The current challenge in that regard is that the tent only came with six stakes and two guylines. However, all six stakes are needed for the basic tent setup so I couldn’t connect the guylines even if I wanted to. That said, as I was packing up this morning I found one stake that a previous camper had left behind. I claimed it.

Getting back to last night, it was a somewhat long night and I woke frequently as the tent shook frequently. On the upside, the wind seemed to do a decent job of creating enough air flow to actually dry out my tent. A little. Certainly not the floor but the mesh walls dried out nicely which was great because I was dreading having mists of water randomly baptizing me throughout the night.

While I was packing up my wet tent this morning, I met the other wild campers that arrived after me last night. They were from the Netherlands but not Amsterdam, otherwise they said they could’ve offered me a play to stay. He mentioned where they were from but I didn’t really understand him – apart from Amsterdam, my knowledge of cities and towns in the Netherlands is pretty much non-existent. I went with the “smile and nod” approach. We continued to have a brief chat about our trips – apparently we’re both heading to Talisker today – before returning to packing up our respective wet gear.

Speaking of wet gear, the wet clothes which I was SO happy to change out of last night were about as unpleasant as you’d expect when it came time to put them back on this morning. Nothing says, “Good morning!” like cold, wet clothes.

The plan for today was to get to Dunvegan which is less than 80 km from Bradford. However, as mentioned moments ago I was also planning on visiting the Talisker distillery along the way. As such, I figured the actual visit to Dunvegan Castle – home of the MacLeod Clan – would likely have to wait until tomorrow. Spoiler Alert: It did.

As has come to be expected, today’s ride was beautiful. An abundance of green hills with an equally abundant supply of rivers, streams, and waterfalls winding their way down. One of these days I’m going to stop to fill my water bottle from one of these streams. But that wasn’t today. I did stop on more than one occasion for photos though. And the sun was even kind enough to make an appearance from time to time.

I arrived at the Talisker distillery shortly after 11:00 and was able to join the tour that started at 11:15. Talisker was definitely the busiest distillery in terms of tours on offer. Oban was also busy but offered tours every 30 minutes. Talisker had tours running every 15 minutes. Clearly a popular place!

With the tour of Talisker came some good news and some bad news. I’ll start with the bad. It turns out not every distillery gives away a souvenir glass at the end of their tour. Talisker doesn’t. As for the good news … it turns out not every distillery gives away a souvenir glass at the end of their tour. Talisker doesn’t. What this means is I no longer have to be concerned with visiting all twelve distilleries just to complete my collection of souvenir glasses. I mean, really. Where did I think I was going to put all those things anyway? That’s not to say I won’t be going to anymore distilleries, I just don’t feel the NEED to do so.

I hid out at Talisker for a while after the tour mainly to warm up and attempt to dry off – partially from rain, more from sweat. Side note: Probably not wise to stand close to a cyclist when on a distillery tour – or any other tour for that matter. For what it’s worth, I do my best to stay downwind and/or keep my distance. In addition to drying off, I also needed to eat something. My eating habits have not been great thus far and I’m reasonably confident I’ve lost at least a few pounds along the way. Maybe more. Anyway, I had an apple, and a couple of bagels with peanut butter and jam. I’m not sure how many calories that was but I’m guessing not enough. But it was better than nothing.

With some food in my stomach, I began the climb back up the single track road to the main road which would lead me to Dunvegan. A ride which was only 35 km and went very well. Sure it rained but that’s not really newsworthy these days.

I arrived at Dunvegan Castle literally as the “Open” sign was being flipped to “Closed”. I kind of thought that might be the case given my time of departure from Talisker. The hills and headwinds that I met along the way likely also played a role. As mentioned previously though, I really hadn’t planned on visiting the castle today anyway, I was really just curious if I could see it from the road (I couldn’t) and also wanted to scout for potential wild camping options.

The highlight of the ride to Dunvegan was the unexpected appearance of the sun as I arrived. Not only did it appear, but it stayed. And the winds died down completely. As such, and contrary to my original plan, I opted for the local campground. Aiding that decision was the fact that I couldn’t find a decent wild spot. Yes, there were a few places I could’ve put my tent but with the sun shining I was hoping for a large space so I could attempt to dry out my gear. The campground seemed like the best place to do so. Opportunities to dry out have been somewhat isolated so I wanted to make the most of the situation.

The road to the campground included a rather pleasant decent before turning into a VERY unpleasant ascent. Seriously. It was very steep. Of course, as I was making my way up said hill there were cars behind me wanting patiently to get by. Whether I move out of the way or not is pretty much determined by the situation. Normally, when going up a hill I don’t move over because getting started again is far more difficult. However, in this case, the hill was so steep I was barely moving anyway so it just seemed like common courtesy to get out the way.

I eventually reached the summit and then back down the other side and arrived at reception where checked in and claimed a site – a slightly elevated area with a picnic table. A campsite with your own personal picnic table is almost worth the price of admission. When you spend as much time as I do either on a bike or sitting in a tent, the opportunity to have some solitude while sitting at a table feels like a luxury. Plus, it makes cooking and eating so much more enjoyable.

With the sun continuing to shine, I spread my gear out around my campsite and let nature do the rest. As it did, I made some pasta. Maybe it’s been the lack of eating lately but my usual bad pasta was delicious tonight. No, I’m not about to open a restaurant. It wasn’t THAT delicious. In reality, it was probably barely passable. But it was my first warm meal since leaving Oban and it really hit the spot.

Despite the suns efforts, my shoes are still soaked and I fear my toes may be permanently shrivelled. I’d take a picture but no one needs to see that. I’ve seen it and, well … there are some things you just can’t un-see. Believe me. I’ve tried.

At less than 80 km, today was another modest day of travel in terms of distance. But the scenery and other sites along the way made for a great day. Tomorrow probably will be a modest distance day as well. Given the number of lost days so far, I think I need to re-evaluate my overall route and how much of Scotland I’m actually going to have time to see. While I would like to “see it all” I also don’t want to have to rush my way to Amsterdam.

Today’s totals:
Distance travelled: 77.58 km
Ride time: 4:46:43
Average speed: 16.23 km/h
Maximum speed: 55.31 km/h
Maximum climb: 17% (I’m pretty sure this was the road going into the campsite)
Maximum descent: 20% (I’m pretty sure this didn’t happen)