In 1982 I filled in some of my abundant time as one of Maggie’s army of the unemployed by leading projects for the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers. Circumstances sent me to a North West Scotland basking in golden sunshine during a prolonged drought, when we arrived in late June it hadn’t rained for 40 days and it rained once during the 3 weeks we were there. We built boardwalks at Achmelvich and Clachtoll beaches and undertook sand dune restoration work. We spent 10 days on Handa Island, dodging Arctic Skuas and building half a mile of boardwalk. Day after day of crystal clarity revealed landscapes of stunning beauty as the temperature reached 82 degrees on our little Island 20 miles South of Cape Wrath. Days of strenuous work would be followed by tips to the seabird cliffs to watch 60,000 breeding seabirds wheel around the Great Stack on their return journey to their ledges. I return to the area periodically, I’ve never replicated the weather, but the scenery makes up for it.
June 2008 and the plan was to ride the Durness Duress Audax, a 196 mile ride around the North of Scotland , starting in Portmahomack East of Tain, 25 miles North of Inverness. Over the weekend prior to our trip I caught up on some work, during which time I fell from the back of my Land Rover, bruising one the tendons in my knee, I ignored this injury as I had my Niece’s Graduation party to attend, followed by Heather’s Choir concert, a return to the Graduation party and then a dry stone walling competition on the Sunday. By Sunday evening I was unable to do the full routine at circuit training thanks to my knee injury and was in some pain from a band of sunburn on my back where my top had failed to cover my back when I had bent over the wall I had been building, I did win the beginners section of the competition, which was nice.
By 2pm on Monday we were on our way to visit Niki in her new house in Mallaig. I reflected on the pain in my left knee, it was alright if I took my shoe off and had my leg straight out, but any sideways pressure was excruciating, getting in and out of the car was a challenge. Six hours saw us to Mallaig and Niki’s hospitality.
I’d always fancied riding the forest track which follows Loch Shiel from Glenfinnan down to a made up road at Polloch and over a 1200 ft climb to Strontian. We decided to make a short day of the 60 mile circuit from Glenfinnan and drove down from Mallaig. The forestry track has a bit of a loose surface with jagged stones of about 25mm, I had one puncture in the fist 6 miles and none in the next 6 to the made up road.
When I later inspected the tyres I found that they both had nicks in the sidewalls. The track would beast be done on tyres of at least 28mm with strong sidewalls, having said that, Heather’s 23mm tyres held out fine. The climb over to Strontian was every bit as difficult as I remember with sustained sections steeper than 1 in ,. 400 metres of ascent in 3 kilometres apparently. I rode the unsurfaced track in my trainers so I could put my foot down easily, putting on my bike shoes with Look cleats soon revealed that any twisting motion on my knee was painful enough to deter unclipping. I soon became adept at putting my right foot down, which I did prior to walking the last 300 metres of the climb.
We’d fought our way to Strontian into the face of a strong Westerly, we now reaped the rewards as we sped along Glen Tarbert on the A861 towards Corran Ferry revelling in the stunning views across Loch Linnhe enhanced by the rainbows thrown up by the odd shower.
It was the first time I’d done this road West to East, previous times I’d been on the Daylight 600 Audax from East to West and the contrast in views was a revelation. Another revelation is the road from Corran to Camusnagaul, close to zero traffic, a good surface and beautiful stretches of Atlantic Oakwood to the left and the gleaming Loch to the right, through a tunnel of bright green late spring foliage a buzzard kept station ahead of me for a hundred magical metres. My reverie soon abated as I was called on to lead Heather into the Westerly beside Loch Eil, it was good practice for both of us but it did make us wonder about the likely 90 mile headwind stretch up to Durness on the coming weekend.
Nothing assuages anxiety like a little retail therapy. Wednesday saw us in Nevis Cycles in Fort William buying tyres and brake blocks, indulging in an orgy of belated fettling and taking a short test ride to Loch Arkaig. Superb views of Ben Nevis and then a return to Niki’s where daughter Kenna gave us an inspiring recital on the harp.
A date with the Skye Ferry winkled us out of our beds early on Thursday and we headed North, I’d never been on the road through Gairloch so it was nice to finally join up the dots, albeit in a car.
By now I was just about able to hobble around without feeling as if my left knee was about to give way, so we stopped at Knockan Crag National Nature Reserve to check out the facilities, there was an excellent display detailing the last 3 billion years of the local geology and the pivotal role of Knockan Crag in our understanding of it.
The landscape of Assynt derives from a complex layer cake of rock which has been pushed about by massive forces, then ground down by water, ice and wind with spectacular results. When you get your eye in you can see the changes in the rock reflected in the changes in the vegetation, these changed come thick and fast and the saddle of a bicycle is a good place to appreciate them from. Before we went to find a B&B in Lochinver we took a diversion to Achmelvich, where there is a superb white shell-sand beach,
the Ranger’s Hut door was propped open to allow the nesting Swallows in and out, the hut itself was an evocation of the spirit of 1950s Ladybird books and inspired us to indulge in a little botanising, finding Fragrant Orchid
and Mountain Everlasting before exploring the odd little ‘Achmelvich Castle’.
I’d heard that the caravan site had a Fish and Chip shop’ so we had a superb Fish Supper for £6.00.
The plan for Friday was to ride the Drumbeg Road, this is about as spectacular a scenic road as you will encounter. I’d filmed an Audax around it in 2004, but I now have a camera allowing 4 times the detail of previous models and the cloud cover looked like it might allow some good views. The new camera is a bit awkward to handle and the quiet and spectacular road would provide a good chance to practice. Judge for yourself.
<![CDATA[<a href="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1187139&server=vimeo.com&fullscreen=1&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=01AAEA" target="_blank">http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1187139&server=vimeo.com&fullscreen=1&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=01AAEA</a>]]> There is a very nice café at Drumbeg where we got chatting with the waitress who was from Romania via Spain, it’s fairly usual for the staff to be from exotic backgrounds in these parts, we stopped for a light lunch at the Kyelsku Hotel, resisting the superb seafood on the menu. The return to Lochinver is via a fairly stiff climb past the mountain Quinag and along a slightly undulating main road, into a headwind and pouring rain, more character building for the ‘Durness Duress’.
Portmahomack lies 9 miles East of Tain, it is a pleasant little fishing village, it’s vey own ‘Carnegie Hall’ was recently refurbished and that’s where we were based for our Audax weekend organised by Steve and Denise Carroll, I hobbled around busying myself with my preparations and Heather checked out the wind direction with a view to doing the 100km ride rather than 314km Durness Duress. By 5 am I could tolerate the rustling of plastic bags heralding the Audax dawn no longer and got up for breakfast and a stare at the weather, brisk Northwesterly of course, so 90 miles into the wind to Durness, various cross heads to Tongue then 75 mile or so with a tailwind.
Filming these events requires careful planning and distinct style. Cover the distance to the first control as fast as possible, then fall back through the field as you stop to film at scenic points, so that there are plenty of other riders still to film. I don’t climb at all well so this ride was a good choice, follow wheels for the first 25 miles and hang on to groups at opportunity for the next 25 miles to the Overscaig Hotel, fight through the midges round the door grab a quick snack and out before the main group of riders to be sure of subjects around the picturesque mountains of Ben Stack, Arkle and Foinaven. The hills between Laxford Bridge and the Kyle of Durness would slow me down, but I should still have groups behind me to film with the Kyle in the background. I would buy a big bottle of Coke and a pasty in Durness rather than wait to be served in the café, then I would have subjects around Loch Eriboll and the Kyle of Tongue. I would write some postcards while having a coffe and a pie at the Post Office in Tongue, then on to the Crask Inn for supper and ten a few shots of groups in the open landscape between there and Bonar Bridge and perhaps a shot of riders crossing the Bridge itself, before a tailwind dash to the finish line. So it proved.
<![CDATA[<a href="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1181480&server=vimeo.com&fullscreen=1&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=01AAEA" target="_blank">http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1181480&server=vimeo.com&fullscreen=1&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=01AAEA</a>]]>Sunday saw a 50km ride to Nigg Ferry and back, we saw dolphins off the jetty of the derelict oil rig yard, some standing stones and a fibreglass mermaid.
By 10.30 pm we were in Leyland drinking in the Eagle and Child after a most pleasant week away.
Damon.
