We went to the Outer Hebrides for 9 days and all we got was this lousy sunburn

We're back from our Easter tour of the Outer Hebrides! Despite all expectations to the contrary, we had no rain on the Islands and had bright sunshine on all but two days.

Beach on the west side of Harris

In an unprecedented and somewhat worrying role-reversal, this led to Alberto (with his Mediterranean complexion) getting badly sunburned on his nose and ears, while I (with the pale skin of a redhead) escaped with a healthy glow.

As soon as we got off the Islands we realised how lucky we had been, as our final 8 miles of the trip (to the Inverness train station on Sunday morning) were done in snow!

Leaving our hosts' house in Kirkhill (near Inverness) for the train back to London

Full reports will follow over the next few weeks, but for now please enjoy a selection of pictures from these beautiful islands:

Exploring the beaches of Vatersay

Dusk falls at the campsite in Borve on Barra

Stunning coastal road on the west side of South Harris

A long stretch of road connecting North Harris with Lewis

Wild camping in Dail Mor, Lewis

Planning our Outer Hebrides Tour

Easter seems to have snuck up on us (might have something to do with the fact that the weather is still behaving as if it's January!) and with it our first tour of the year, to the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. We always knew it would be less than ideal weatherwise so early in the year, but the current circumstances go beyond anything we had planned.

Yes it is late March! (source)

London received a dusting of snow yesterday, but further north there were blizzard conditions and pretty much the entirety of the UK has been going below freezing every night this week, with no sign of it letting up any time soon. The entire Isle of Arran in the Inner Hebrides--which we are fortunately not going to visit--has been without power for about 24 hours. Fortunately temperatures in the Outer Hebrides are always slightly warmer due to the gulf stream, but at the moment it doesn't look like we'll get highs above 8C (46F) at any point during our trip.

The tour must go on, however, so we will be packing several layers and hoping for the best--and of course writing down the locations of hostels in case it truly does go pear-shaped!

View Larger Map 

We've planned a rough route and given some thought to likely stopping points. The main questions remaining are whether we'll make it from Glasgow (where our train will leave us) to Oban in one and a half days to make the Friday ferry or catch the Saturday one instead, and whether we'll leave the Outer Hebrides via the Tarbert-Uig ferry and take in a bit of Skye, or continue a bit further north and catch the ferry from Stornoway to Ullapoo. Either way we'll be headed to Inverness, from where we'll have a direct train back to London (taking virtually the whole day!).

Our packing list is complete (though not packed!) and we are making last minute adjustments to my new Long Haul Trucker.  I've also bought some new Neoprene overshoes in hopes of solving the cold feet conundrum.

Callanish standing stones (source)

We are really looking forward to seeing the stunning scenery that the Outer Hebrides have to offer, and some of the cultural sites like the standing stones at Callanish. We're unforunately likely to miss the Stornoway Piping Competition by one day but we're hoping we'll catch some Easter festivities--we'll mostly likely still be in the Catholic part of the islands on Easter sunday.

Assuming we don't blow away and/or freeze to death we'll be back on Sunday 7 April. Hopefully with both character and leg muscles built!

Snow riding within the M25

We have been suffering from cold weather and snow for the last few days in the Southest of England. That means no road cycling for us - the risk of slipping and sustaining an injury is far too high and not worth it.

Unfortunately I had to cancel my audax plans for this weekend also, meaning just one last chance to fit in a 200 km this January next Saturday. However, snow and cold weather has its benefits: it is great for mountain biking and areas that are normally too wet/muddy become ridable again.

Along the Lee Valley canal, -2C

Dan and I set off from our doorsteps, and rode all the way to Epping Forest along the canal path, making it a pretty much traffic-free day. The way to the Forest was bitterly cold, and soon started to snow, first lightly, then quite moderately. We felt fine and relatively warm, but our fingers were getting uncomfortably cold. So much that we decided to warm up in a café until the temperatures rose to balmy -1C.

Rolling into the Forest

Snack stop

The Forest was quieter than usual, being a Sunday. The snow remained soft throughout the day, and it was nice to ride on it while on the broad paths. However, our attempts to take on the singletrack weren't successful. Firstly, they were pretty much invisible, and secondly, they had a thick layer of wet mud underneath the crust of snow that made them a pain to ride on.

Soft snow has a good grip, if you have knobbly tyres

Obligatory picture before heading back home

We rode for about 15 km in the Forest, mostly on broad paths, and it did feel like a good work out with all attempts to take the narrower singletrack. When on the broad paths, it was fairly easy rolling and the grip was pretty good - certainly a nice experience if you happened across soft snow - surely not so good when it ices up!

By 11:30 am we decided to turn back home, and by then, we had endured more than 3 hours of continuous snow. The canal path was completely covered by snow, as was the water itself, but that made for a nice ride back. Not many cyclists had been on it yet, but as the snow was still soft and fluffy, we had no trouble averaging more than 20 km/h on the return leg.

Heading back. On the right, the frozen and snow-covered canal

When I got home, we'd clocked up more than 60 km, which, for a ride like today's, was certainly a good work out and better than originally anticipated.

My kit held up ok, although both toes and fingers suffered a bit from the cold. In such conditions it is normal for people to use bike mittens or even ski gloves. I just took liners and winter gloves, but that did not do the trick. They got wet far too early, and with the wind, my fingers felt painful for a good while. I learnt my lesson for the next time.

My toes, however, seemed all right - I had thick wool socks and theoretically water-proof sealskinz socks. I wore my only mtb shoes, which are meant to be summery ones, with plenty of ventilation. As I was showering, I could feel the tingle on my toes, and they seemed far too red. Perhaps I could do with overshoes on the next cold ride?

The bike. A good cleanup will be needed...

The rider. It was cold and snowing

We couldn't convince Lucy that five hours of snow biking was a fun way to spend a day, but she earned some machaca points too when she went out for a run later in the afternoon, as the snow continued to fall.

A quick off-road spin in Richmond Park

We've been hibernating for a few days in London. The snow has finally made its arrival, and temperatures have dropped below freezing, causing patches of ice on some roads.

On top of that, time is very limited for me due to work commitments. So a quick unplanned mtb ride it was. With Epping being supper muddy, and the North Downs being an unexplored territory for us, Richmond seemed like a sensible idea.

We head to Richmond when all the other plans don't work out. It is easy to get there, nice-ish, and full of other machacas to cheer you up. But this time we took the mtbs rather then the skinny tyres. And what a great decision! Just minutes after we entered the park, we saw a fellow rider badly falling over in a roundabout. His front wheel hit some ice and within milliseconds he was on the floor. Luckily the cars had seen him, so he was fine.

The park was packed with other roadies though. Mtb's were all over the place also, and so we decided to join the trail going anticlockwise. It is about 12 km long, flatter than the road, and with plenty of pedestrians. There is no complicated parts, except that this time there was slush in some sections. When I tried to go find the singletracks (yes, there are some!) I was soon told off by a local...Apparently, bikes destroy the paths, so cyclists are not allowed to go off the trail.

Paths that you're not supposed to cycle on...

Only minutes before we were told off, Lucy had her first and only fall in the park. It was a downhill-ish section, with wet and slippery surfaces. A great combination for some good fun I thought. But I forgot that she's still learning what not to do in those circumstances: pulling the front brake when turning while going downhill. I did not realise, but she fell. Fortunately, a fellow mtber was there and gave her some intructions: put your weight behind the saddle and do not pull the front brake! She made it down the rest of the hill safely. Oh well, we will try again next time?! She seems to have assimilated the rule number 5 because, to my surprise, she did not complain nor shout at me that much...!

Post-fall muddy effects

Apart from those exciting minutes of singletrack, the ride finished smoothly two laps later. At least we managed to put in some kms and spin the legs. We got sooo muddy, which in a way feels good. But not so much when we got home and found out that the hose was completely frozen, so no running water to get rid of the mud!

Lucy's got new freckles!

We didn't cycle this weekend

No cycling for us this weekend, meaning our first proper cycle ride of February will have to wait. On Saturday we were busy running errands, and Saturday night it started to snow! Our first snowfall of the season, and snow is a Pretty Big Deal in London.

We went to check it out on Sunday morning...

The roads were passable but we thought it would be prudent not to ride in such uncertain conditions. We walked up to Hampstead Heath instead.

Sledding (or sledging as the brits call it) was in full swing on Parliament Hill. There were even a few snowboarders and skiers out! We did see one intrepid machaca on a mountain bike, which made us wish we hadn't left ours at home!

The snow is already starting to melt so we're hopeful we can get in a long ride next weekend. In the meantime we're working on an exciting project at home that you'll be hearing about in the next week or so!