Bridge 15 - Skye Bridge

Midsummer, getting into the mood

There she is!

The Midsummer Odyssey started at Kyle of Lochalsh, after a lovely train ride. I was anxious about not having a booking for the bike on the train but it all worked out ok.

Ready and already wet

Arriving by train

Bill is wet too

Jennifer and I had a nice midsummer evening, eating, drinking, watching seals and fire-making on the beach.  That a UK Border Agency boat passed by was a bit disconcerting and more unexpected than the submarine which surfaced the next day.

No rain the day before!

Bill arrived in the rain the next day and we biked the bridge, as you can see.  Then we had a welcome cup of tea aboard 'Aisling' before gearing up, literally, and heading down to Ardvasar.  Bill's panniers were not well positioned and it was a hard 24 miles as his feet kept banging into them.  We found the old road for quite a bit of the way and that was nice.  We arrived very wet in Ardvasar and my socks didn't dry out till I tied them to my basket a couple of days later.  Bill had the clever idea (well, it was his stomach that had the idea) of booking a table in the only eating place as we went by, to avoid arriving and finding the kitchen closed.  That would have been very tough.  As it was we had a super-quick shower (well, a shower each, you understand), a change into less-wet clothes and set off a few yards down the road to eat warm food.

Midsummer Odyssey - nearly leaving

The midsummer team

We have had great fun planning this.  Bill is now sailing off the West Coast as a sort of warm-up, though the only connection is 'West Coast'.  I am bringing a first aid kit for us and he is bringing a first aid kit for the bikes.  That should work.  I am packing as sparingly as possible and have decided that it's not a good use of space and weight to bring swimwear.  If I really do have an irresistible urge to have dip there will be options :-)

We start at Kyle of Lochalsh on Saturday next and cycle to the Bridge over the Atlantic at Seil Island.  We plan to be at Seil Island on Monday evening. We hope it will be warmer than Boxing Day when this pic was taken - our last bridge crossing together.

B&Bs are booked, extra padded shorts are purchased, lots of maps consulted (special thanks to Sustrans for their useful information and map).

Day 1 will be Kyle of Lochalsh to Arvasar (Skye Bridge)
Day 2 will be ferry to Mallaig, train to Glenfinnan and then cycling to Duror (Ballachulish Bridge)
Day 3 Duror to Easdale (39 miles - ouch!) (Connel Bridge)
Day 4 Cycling the Bridge over the Atlantic, back to Oban  and home on the train.

Bridge 14 - Tay Bridge

Image by Anne Tavendale

Ready to go!

Team Tay Bridge

The Tay Bridge was biked today with great support from Anne Tavendale and  Dan Champion of Team Bicycles, a group which supports amateur racing cyclists. This was the maiden Bridge voyage of the Brompton and she/he/it performed admirably, a consequence of TLC from Badger Bikes.

You'd never know I'd just been to the hairdresser!

We met this charming family.

Image: Anne Tavendale

The Crossing started with coffee (and pancakes with bacon for me) in the DCA, which is always a good place to meet in Dundee. Then we set off, Anne leading the way. We had to carry the bikes up to the bridge as the lift is still out of order - I was glad to have the lighter Brompton.

After going over and back (call me a 'completer' if you must!), Anne and I continued to Leuchars, meeting a cute swan family en route. That is a lovely bike ride, though, by the time I arrived in Leuchars, I regretted not wearing my padded shorts.

It was such a great trip that I am thinking of doing it again next week!

Bridge 13 - Neptune's Staircase, Fortwilliam

'Neptune's Staircase' is a couple of miles west of Fortwilliam and is a series of eight locks on the Caledonian Canal. They were built in the early 1800s in order to get the canal up a height of 19.5 metres, though they were yards, feet and inches then.  Thomas Telford had a hand in the planning which you can tell by the elegance of them - a feature that I failed to capture with my camera.

I promised Craig a tune here.

The rain in Fortwilliam is a particularly wet variety and I got soaked just cycling from my sub-standard B&B to my morning meeting.  I couldn't  contemplate spending an hour or so in that rain and then sitting on a cold train for 5 hours, so I sat and looked at the rain for a long time.  It cleared a bit in the afternoon so, spurred on by Linda Campbell's £50.00 dare, I set off.  The weather cleared nicely for my jaunt, returning to grizzly normal once I was safely back under shelter.

I cycled across each of the eight locks up the canal and then back down again.  It was a lovely interlude, even if I had to scramble a support team from passing holiday-makers.  The best support came from a woman who is currently artist-in-residence in Glen Nevis - I think her name is Tracey Warr but I will find out and correct this if not.  She has made a tree-house in the forest and is currently making nests.  Based on an email exchange with Craig, who told me about this lovely place in the first instance, I was practising my tune (Farquhar and Hettie's Waltz), marvelling that there was no-one to hear me, when I realised that she was filming me!  Aaargh! 

After making a complete eejit of myself, I sat and had a lovely cup of tea outside a shop called 'Caledonian Bears', which I initially thought must be a football team, but it makes and sells bears made from lovely tweed and such-like.  As I sipped my earl grey tea by the 'staircase'  the Jacobite Steam Train chugged its way past - that was all very magical, especially as the sun was shining by then.

Bridge 12 - Dean Bridge, Edinburgh

All the team, including flag

The Bridge with club logo inset

May 10th 2013

The Dean Bowling Club, whose logo is based on the 1831 Dean Bridge, have kindly sponsored this biking project.  Therefore, I cycled across this lovely bridge this evening with a group of supporter cyclists.  We were also supported by Normal Dall and Dick Webb from the Bowling Club, who brought the Club flag to add gravity to the occasion.


Particular thanks to Kevin McCann who braved the traffic to take photos from all angles - not caring a jot for the number 37 bus bearing down on him.  Duty first, it seemed.  We all survived to celebrate at the Club later.

Bridge 11 - 'The Bridge to Nowhere', Bellhaven Bay, Dunbar, Scotland

 Robin turning the bike for me in the wind

 21 April 2013
Thanks to Robin MacEwen for the idea, planning (including tide tables), lifting and turning my bike and great images.

 The tide was not as high as we had anticipated but that did mean that my lovely shiny new wheels didn't have to touch the seawater.  The wind was so strong that it was really difficult to ride the bike on the bridge and there was a great deal more posing than cycling.  After a nice picnic, some of it in the JamesBond-like car that Robin has, I enjoyed exploring Dunbar's nooks and crannies.  Then I got the train back (in case anyone thought I had cycled from Edinburgh to Dunbar!) but left my precious spectacles behind, thus starting a whole trauma for me, as I am lost without them.  I am sure I will be reunited with them soon.  Meanwhile, this was number 11 and I have 9 to go.  The next one is the Dean Bridge in Edinburgh on May 10th.  See you there!

Bridge 10: Galata Bridge, Istanbul

                           Sponsored by Debbie Davidson

Galata Bridge, Istanbul

Neither cyclists nor pedestrians are allowed on the Borphorus Bridge so I had to settle for the Galata.  Indeed, this is actually where Debbie D would have been in the 1960s when her father broke his false teeth on a fish sandwich - the Bosphorus was only built in 1973.

Atek Bike Hire gave us free bikes!

Support team, Frank and Sally, did a lot of research in advance so, while I didn't believe that bikes were banned from the Borphorus Bridge and had to check it out for myself (what's new?), their advance work made it possible for me to do the Galata very easily.  Ishak Tekkol of 'atek', which sells and rents bikes was mystified at our short rental and, since he was in the middle of lunch when we got back, didn't charge us at all.  Huge thanks to him for that and go there if you need a bike or a bike-related service in Istanbul.  We only found him because of a helpful waiter in a nearby restaurant.

Enthusiastic waiter! 

Galata Bridge Support Team

We cycled on the footpath as I was not completely suicidal that day, though I did cycle a bit of the short distance from the bike hire shop to the bridge.  My support team then bought me lunch and I got a lovely pic with the same waiter who had found the bike hire in the first place.  Altogether a good day's work.