The original plan for today, just 10 miles plus the ferry to Leverburgh, was embarrassingly unambitious, probably driven originally by location of available accommodation at the time, so we've improvised (most unlike me) and cycled without having a pre-planned Garmin route to use. We had a sightseeing visit planned to a local church, St Clements, and extended that to make a circuit of South Harris as you can see.
The ferry crossing was enlivened by seeing some seals and by meeting up again with other cyclists we had already met. We also chatted with a solo Dutch cyclist who was wild bikepacking, so not using any official campsites etc. Unfortunately there wasn't time to ask the big questions like how she charges her smartphone before we had to get off the ferry.
After our sightseeing trip, we set off up the eastern side of the island. Unlike most of our Hebridean cycling so far, this involved hills and since we were carrying panniers was quite hard work, so a sneaky Mars Bar, Wagon Wheel and pain au chocolat were effectively used as motivation.
The east side of the island is more rugged than the West with all the terrain being very rocky. It's amazing that even in some really remote places there are houses, with absolutely no neighbors to cadge off if you run out of milk!
Weather-wise, we've had another dry day, and are now at a B&B (photo of view below) where an evening meal is provided for all the residents, so it'll be interesting to chat to others about what they are doing.
Balanced scorecard (0-10)
Total miles cycled 129
Wetness level 0
Stress level 0
Tiredness 6
Scenery 9
Enjoyment 9
Kite flying 0 (but we live in hope for tomorrow!)
Excess calorie intake 6
Sightseeing 4
Midgie count 0
Loving seeing the sights vicariously!
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