The Journey to Skye

We left Liverpool via train and headed to Carlisle, near the border with Scotland. (We were on a fairly tight schedule to get to Skye, so we had to cheat a wee, you see.) From Carlisle we had approximafely one hundred miles to go, and two days to do it. That doesn't sound too bad, does it?  Considering that we haven't been on the bikes much, and we are not in great shape...we'll see what we can manage!

When we arrived in Carlisle we saw this curious site: loads of guys taking pictures of this particular railway engine:

We've heard the term "train-spotting" but this was the first time we'd spotted train-spotters spotting trains. This must be a specialized piece of equipment because it was pulling a maintenance train. 

Just a few miles north of Carlisle along the much-loved National Cycle Network route (NCN Route 74) we saw a beautiful site:

We're back!!! Yay!!

We came over the border at Gretna Green, which is the first town in Scotland when coming from England. 

Gretna Green has hosted thousands of runaway weddings through the years. After Lord Hardwick's marriage act of 1754, young people had to be at least 21 years of age to be married in England. But in Scotland the law was much more relaxed - the couple needed to be only over 16 years of age, be "free to marry," and the ceremony had to be witnessed by two people. 

Well, at Gretna Green there was a blacksmith shop. Kids in England would elope and sneak across the border into Scotland to be married at the smithy, and that's how the blacksmiths there came to be known as the Anvil Priests. 

We were drawn to the romantic history of the town. We had our own romantic moment when we found a random deserted bus stop, pulled out the guitar and sang the song 'Bonnie Away' which tells the story of an eloping young couple on their way to Gretna Green:

"Come with me up to old Dumfries,
For to meet there the Anvil Priest,
Now the two of us are sixteen,
We’ll be headed for Gretna Green

In a book I did read it so,
Lovers do to this village go,
We’ll be gone in the dead of night,
Wednesday we will be man and wife

Come away Bonny come my love, Bonny away

We wont rest on our journey north,
In the footsteps of those before,
There our travel will be complete,
Where old England and Scotland meet

God speed us there
Even if the storm does break
Let your young heart lead the way
Let your young heart lead the way"

There's still a booming wedding business at Gretna Green, as well as tourist shops and cafes. (We split a pretty decent mac-and-cheese because that sounded better than the cold hummus wrap we were carrying. And the coffee was pretty good, too.) While we eating our biking fuel on the patio we witnessed one wedding party leave and another one file into the venue. Busy place! Romance, in a queue.

There was a piper, in full kilted attire, in the courtyard who smiled and posed more than he played.  He would play a tune or two, and then stand there smiling while everyone in the wedding party sidled up to him for a photo. It was funny to watch.

Then it was onward north on NCN74...

Past a lonely red phone box:

Which was accompanied by a post box. 

We settled into two days of what can only be called "grudging utility cycling." The scenery wasn't too great, we were on secondary roads along the motorway for much of the journey, and it was pretty boring. We were spoiled on our cycle tour last year; our high expectations of beautiful scenery and quiet roads with no traffic were left unmet this time around! But we had fun anyhow. 

We camped about halfway to Glasgow, and were reminded of the joys of communing with nature in Scotland: bumpy-boggy fields and midges! Yay!

It wasn't all bad, honestly. And we even had the opportunity to visit our first ever Scottish truck stop and enjoyed a wee pickle toastie as well as pretty good (well, decent) coffee! 

In Hamilton we found the Chaterherault County Park: 

It was built in 1732 for the Duke of Hamilton to use as a summer garden and hunting residence. Now it's a wee museum and cafe, so we stopped for a coffee just as it was starting to drizzle. 

We slogged onward from there toward Glasgow. It was tedious riding, and in places the NCN route was very poorly marked and we got lost a few times. That's par for the course with the NCN routes. 

Except in some cases it was worse: the signs were obviously rotated on the posts so they were pointing us in the wrong direction! (Some teenage prankster was probably doubled over in laughter!)

We fell for this trick a couple times, and once rode about two miles through winding forest paths only to end up on the opposite side of a street we had been on fifteen minutes before! 

We cheated once or twice and switched on the phone to determine our location, but otherwise we slogged along. 

We came into Glasgow from the south-east, and after winding our way along the NCN75 from Uddingston we came into Glasgow Green, the huge park on the north side of the Clyde. And then....

The Peoples' Palace! In just an instant we were transported back to the wonderful times we had last fall, exploring Glasgow and taking in all the exciting sites the city has to offer. Yay! We're back!

A short while later we made our way home...

To Albert Drive! (Hm... must be blue- and purple-bin day.) 

This is where we stayed last fall, and where we had stored a few treasures (aka junk) in the garage loft. We let ourselves into the garage, sorted out through luggage that we'd need for Skye, and later met up with Jennifer & two of her children for a mellow dinner at home together. It's hard to convey how nice it felt to come back to Albert Drive, and to see Jennifer again. It felt like we were home!

The next morning we were up early and to the train station to head to Skye.

Our route took us to Mallaig, but because of a train strike we ended up on buses for a good bit of the journey. 

At first we were disappointed not to be taking the train the entire way. But in the end, it worked out well to take the bus - they had room for our bikes (thank goodness) and we took a different route than the train would have run. This meant that we ended up driving through Glen Coe on the way to Fort William, an incredible area that we were not able to explore on cycle tour last year. (The road is not suitable for bikes as it has no shoulder whatsoever and sees tons of traffic.)

Glen Coe was an inspiring sight! We are thrilled to know that we would be be coming back through with our friend Lance in just a few weeks to explore it in depth!

We had a wonderfully informative bus driver who narrated the journey. He told us that the mountain on the right (below) is know as the Shepard, as he watches over the valley:

After Fort William we headed west for the final leg of the journey, through Glenfinnan.  (You may recall that we stayed in a train car that had been converted to a wee bunk house in this area last year, and that's where we spent the night in the museum storeroom when Melinda fell ill. Oh, the memories!)

After half a day of bussing, we were in Mallaig. 

We took a picture in exactly this same spot last year when we came through on cycle tour! This time it wasn't raining, and there were loads of tourists all over the place. (Last year we were in Mallaig at the very end of the tourist season, and we practically had the place to ourselves.)

And here comes the ferry to Skye...

And then we're loaded and headed across the Sound of Sleat ...

Here we are with our friend Abby, a music student from Minnesota.

We met Abby in Limerick, Ireland, at the Blas Festival in June. Then we saw her again at Willie Clancy in Miltown-Malbay. While we were in Liverpool she went to Norway to learn Norwegian fiddle technique, and then we met again on the ferry to Skye for the Alasdair Fraser fiddle week. It was fun swapping stories of fiddle adventures - what a fantastic summer!

The ferry ride to Skye was short and before we knew it we were landed at Armadale. 

Next stop Sabhal Mor Ostaig for the fiddle camp!