Monday, February 25, 2013

York to Cambridge

So I spent the last 4 days in the flattest part of England, which was nice for a change. The national cycle routes were also reasonable, so I made great time. Four days of mostly cycling through English farmland. It was a bit harder to find a decent place to camp since some fields are completely torn up and muddy and others have crops coming in.

York to camping just outside Hull - 50 miles
Outside Hull to just east of Lincoln - 60 miles
East of Lincoln to south of Boston - 50 miles
South of Boston to Cambridge - 70 miles

To start, I spent some time in York, saw Clifford's tower, which is a sort of turret raised on a hill in the middle of town.
I took a walk along the old city walls:
Then I went to look at the York cathedral.
They wanted $15 just to walk around inside, which after having seen tons of other churches and cathedrals (for free) I didn't feel like paying, so I left York to continue south. A few miles later and the national cycle route took me right into Selby, a town I'd never heard of and of course they have a cathedral, and of course it's free to enter, so in I go.
They didn't even seem to care if I took pictures inside:

I guess this cathedral's claim to fame is the Washington window which supposedly served as some inspiration for the american flag:
Next day and I made it to Lincoln. Oh man, they have a cathedral too? And it's free? Stop the presses, another old church found in England.


The castle was closed since I arrived late into town, and since there were no hostels or hosts that I had found, I rode out of town to find a place to camp.

The next day I made it to Boston, and they also have a cathedral.
I didn't stay in town, but I did find it odd when arriving many signs had Russian translations, and in the hour or so I was in town I heard quite a few people speaking what seemed to be Russian. I left town and continued south to make my next day's journey into Cambridge shorter.

Arriving in Ely around 3, I saw yet another Cathedral (they're really hard to miss), and I tried to see Oliver Cromwell's house, but they were of course closed by the time I was there at 4.



There being nothing else worth seeing in English Farming country, I continued on to Cambridge where I am staying with a host before heading to London in two days.





Thursday, February 21, 2013

Out of Scotland

So the last few days:
Train from Inverness to Stirling
Train from Stirling to Glasgow, cycling to halfway to Carlisle
Cycling to Carlisle and slightly out outside the city. Finally got my cycling computer working.
Hadrian's cycleway to Newcastle - approx 60 miles
Newcastle to Durham - approx 20 miles
Durham to camping outside Ripon - 50 miles
Outside Ripon to York - 50 miles

After staying Inverness for the second time, I rode to see Fort George which was farther outside the city than I thought it would be, and not worth it.

I decided I'd had enough of the Scottish weather and wasn't about to head through the highlands again, so I headed to the train station where I met another cyclist who had been touring northwest Scotland on his fathers ~40 year old road bike. He said he had stayed inside for 3 days straight due to the weather, so I no longer felt bad about doing ~25 miles and leaving skye earlier than I had planned. After a three hour train ride I arrived in Stirling.

Next morning I went to Stirling Castle and the Wallace monument, which were interesting.

If you look across the river, you can see the Wallace monument from here. Maybe.
It actually is a fairly cool monument.
Inside it they have Wallace's sword:
The next day I took the train the rest of the way to Glasgow, then headed south towards Carlisle which took two days. Scotland did its best to keep me there with a steady headwind for both days. It was interesting looking at the wind farms up on the hills and seeing every single windmill pointed into the wind in the exact direction I was heading. No wait, interesting wasn't the word I was looking for. Heading into Carlisle, I ran out of prepaid minutes on my phone and they wouldn't accept an american credit card to refill it. When I arrived, it was about 5pm on a Sunday, and nothing was open, not even the supermarkets, so I couldn't buy more minutes for the phone, which I was going to use to check if I had a host to stay with. Stealing wifi from a starbucks, I found out that there isn't a single hostel in the city, so I continued on and camped about 10 miles outside the city. Luckily, I had already loaded the map for the next day on my phone.

The Hadrian's wall cycleway is cycle route 72 and runs east/west mostly along Hadrian's wall and directly by some of the Roman ruins. This was my first full day outside of Scotland, and my first day of nice weather all day. However, the cycleway itself is designed sadistically, with 15% grades every few miles, both up and down, and the path goes miles out of the way for no reason. Mostly the path goes through farmland.
Wall and ruined tower:
Cool view of the valley, but really there was no reason to make the cycle route go up and down it constantly. In 60 miles, my bike computer showed about 2000 miles climbed, with zero net gain.
Made it to Newcastle regardless, where I hastily bought a phone voucher before everything closed, and stayed with another great host.

The following day was a short day ~20 miles to Durham where I stayed with a family friend in the dorms of St Johns College, right next to the cathedral and main shopping district. On the suggestion of my hosts, I saw the Angel of the North on the way to Durham:
The cathedral is huge, with at least 100 foot high ceilings, but they don't want you taking pictures inside.
Then it was south towards Fountains Abbey and York. There were no good cycle routes, so I ended up taking all backroads through the English countryside, which was slow. The country is hilly, and I was checking my map constantly. I did make it through a town named Catterick Garrison with a large military base and on my way out I passed this amazing sign:
All I could think of way a huge tank driving by with a "Student Driver" sign above the turret.

Fountains Abbey is another World Heritage site I visited. This abbey is huge, with the main cathedral ruins being very similar to the Durham cathedral. Both have very high ceilings and 9 alters at the front.
I made a slight detour to Harrogate to try to find a replacement part for my rear rack that fell off weeks ago, but couldn't find the store before it closed. Made it the rest of the way into York and I'm currently an the Ace hostel in the middle of town. Tomorrow I'll see a few things in York, then head further south towards Cambridge which should take a few days.

Monday, February 18, 2013

still alive, so far

It's now midnight and I'm a bit too tired to do a huge update. However, in the last few days I saw Fort George in Inverness which turned out to be a huge waste of time, then I took the train to Stirling which took 3 hours. I spent the night in a SYHA (scottish youth hostel association) hostel which wanted to change me 3pounds for an hour of internet. Really, in 2013 they wanted to charge me that. Then I spent the morning in Stirling looking at the castle, and the Wallace monument, both completely shrouded in fog. They're only about 2 miles apart across the valley and you couldn't see one from the other. At the base of the Wallace monument is where I bought and tried I Irn-Bru for the first time. It tastes like cream soda mixed with jellybeans. It also has about 1g of sugar in each 10ml. From Stirling I cycled south towards Carlisle which took two days. There were several wind farms along the way, and seeing every single windmill pointed away from you, into the wind, is really quite annoying. Carlisle didn't have a single hostel, and I couldn't get a hold of anyone that might have agreed to host me because my prepaid phone time had run out, they wouldn't accept an american credit card over the phone, and when I arrived in town at 5pm on a Sunday, everything was closed, even the supermarkets. Today I cycled from just east of Carlisle along the national cycle route near Hadrian's wall and I'm staying with a host in Newcastle. I was huddled outside a starbucks, stealing their wifi so that I could find a store that would sell me phone card minutes.

Most of my pictures are still in my camera, but here is the most interesting picture of Fort George. It was not worth a 30 mile detour.

Thursday, February 14, 2013

More on Isle of Skye

Spent two more days on the Isle of Skye. Tuesday was decent, with even a bit of tailwind. Wednesday and Thursday I paid for that though. Tuesday I went from Broadford through Portree, then hiked up the Storr, and even had enough light and energy to make it to Staffin, where I stayed in a campsite that was of course closed for winter like half of Scotland. Good news for me though because I didn't have to pay since no one was there and none of the facilities were open.

Looking down into Portree with the cliffs of the Storr in the background:
Looking up at the cliffs from closer:
It was cold and windy at the top:
For the second time while camping in Scotland, around midnight, a strong wind blew in and did its best to take down my tent. It was then I realized that the slight tailwind I had coming north up the peninsula had turned into a raging gale still pushing northeast, meaning I was going to face it while trying to get off the island. I had planned to hike again, up the back of the Quirang, but I figured I wouldn't see much and I was already soaked so decided to skip it. I did ride up to the start though, over the hill, and across to the Atlantic side of Trotternish. Here the headwind strengthened, and I was having trouble even standing, with the rain hitting me hard enough to hurt. Somehow, even with wearing waterproof everything I was still able to wring out my clothes when I stopped at a hostel in Portree.

The Quirang:
Looking back at Staffin. I wasn't expecting the view to improve much with a 6 mile hike.

Finally, went from Portree back to Kyle of Lochalsh and took the train back to Inverness where I'm now staying in another hostel. Tomorrow I will probably check out Fort George before heading south to Stirling and then leaving Scotland. I am looking forward to a day where I don't have to wear my raincoat.

Monday, February 11, 2013

Scotland

Checklist of things I've done in Scotland:

  • Hear Scottish guy say "Och" - Day 1
  • Eat Haggis (and love it) - Day 2
  • Get asked by a bartender "Only a half-pint?" - Day 2
  • See a castle - Day 3
  • Swear at the headwind - Day 4
  • See the highlands - Day 5
  • Pay $50+ for a bottle of 10 year old, single malt Scotch (and not regret it) - Day 7
  • Chase some poor farmer's sheep a mile down the road - Day 8
  • See Loch Ness - Day 9
  • See Isle of Skye - Day 11
Todo:
  • Try Irn Bru
  • Enjoy a tailwind for more than 5 minutes
Well, not much left to do here. Guess it'll soon be time to head south to England.

Skye

Yesterday, took the train to Kyle of Lochalsh, then cycled to Eilean Donan castle, aka the most famous castle in Scotland, aka Highlander castle.
There can be only one:
After seeing the castle, I rode to the start of a hike I had planned near the Camsunary Bothy. According to someone at the Fort William hostel I stayed in, there is a Scottish Mountain Bothy Association that maintains a number of old defunct houses in the middle of nowhere that anyone can stay at. They are sort of like unstaffed AMC huts. This particular one was about 2.5 miles off the road, and I realized quite quickly that I wouldn't be able to bring my bike. Having started after dark, I pushed the bike about 50 feet off the trail, locked it, and grabbed my sleeping bag, handlebar bag, and the pannier with the cooking gear and headed upwards with nothing to guide me but my headlight. Shortly on it dawned on me that this was probably a bad idea. However I kept going and around 11pm I found what I was looking for; a hut in the middle of nowhere (it's the far hut in this picture):
After sleeping there, I tried to hike to Loch Coruisk. There is supposed to be a trail that crosses the river and continues around the coast, however, I walked about 2 miles trying to find a way to cross the river and I didn't find anything that looked close to safe, so I visited some other lake to the north, that feeds that river. Not wanting to risk getting myself and my gear soaking wet by attempting a crossing, I headed back after this picture:
Tired from a not great night's sleep in the Bothy and too much walking, I made it back to Broadford, where I am now in a backpacker's hostel. Tomorrow I will head north to the Storr and Quirang and hopefully hike there.

Friday, February 8, 2013

Big Update!
Left Glasgow on Monday and today is Friday. I was without internet in the interim.
Day 1 I took the train to Glasgow to Gourock to get a jump start on cycling to the isles. However when I arrived they weren't running the ferry to Dunoon due to bad weather. Facing that, I jumped back on the train and decided to head north along Loch Lomond from the train station in Bishopton. Crossing the Erksine bridge, the pedestrian section was also closed due to bad weather (Come on Scotland, closing half your country due to a bit of wind? I thought you were better than that.), but I jumped the barrier because I certainly wasn't going to get back on the train to Glasgow. The rest of the day was riding along Loch Lomond and up towards the highlands into a strong wind, rain, and snow. News was on during at the pub I stopped for dinner at and they said wind was gusting up to 70 mph on the islands I had been trying to get to. Finally found a place to camp alongside the road just north of Crainlarich after dark and I had about an inch of snow on my bike in the morning.

Next day, the weather was no better. 30+ mph wind directly in my face. Rain, Snow, everything grey. At one point after struggling up a long hill, a guy in a stopped car mentioned that it was all downhill from there. It was, but with the wind in my face I was going no faster. Lowest gear possible, face down, soaked from head to toe (at least the waterproofing on all my gear was holding up) going down a 5% grade slower than I went up it. Overall a fairly miserable day, with little chance for pictures. Finally made it down into Glen Coe to camp by nightfall. Didn't make it to Fort William like I planned, but mostly due to the headwind.
Where I spent the night:

Next Day I had a short ride to Fort William, which sits in the shadow of the highest mountain in the UK, Ben Nevis. On the way into town I passed about 100 bed and breakfasts.
In Fort William lies Ben Nevis Distillery, where I picked up a fine bottle of 10 year old single malt scotch whisky for way too much money. For about a quarter mile around the distillery there is a sweet, peaty smell that cannot be mistaken. Since I was a day late, I missed the couchsurfing host I had setup, so I stayed in a backpackers hostel.

Next day I started out along the great glen way towards Inverness, where for the first time in Scotland I didn't have the wind in my face, so I made great time. Much of the great glen way was just 4x4 dirt road and not too impressive. It certainly wasn't designed with cycling in mind, and I imagine it would be fairly boring to walk through. More of an average glen way to be honest.
Shortly after Fort Augustus, the great glen way turns to junk, and they had the main bit blocked off with a terribly hastily done detour. I took one look at the new path and decided I wouldn't possibly make it on a bike, so I found a place to camp beside the road before turning around in the morning.

After that I spent most of the way along the A82 and Loch Ness, spent an hour in Urquhart castle (pronounced Urkart) which is apparently one of the oldest castles in the highlands.
Loch Ness is really one of the more boring lakes I've been beside. If it wasn't for its historic significance as a trade route and the stupid monster myth I doubt it would have much mention at all.
After the castle I went straight to Inverness where I'm currently staying.