Thursday, September 8, 2016

A Bike and Sail trip in Scotland

We spent a week traveling in Scotland  with Island Hopping, a bicycle tour company, on the ship below - a two masted schooner from the Netherlands.  Despite the tiny rooms, the whole experience was great - staff went out of their way to make us comfortable and the lounge area was big enough to hang around in after a day's cycling.

We started the tour in Oban which you can see in the three pictures below. 



On our first day out the sails were hoisted - here's Robbie helping out!

our first castle sighting from the ship - Duarte, home of the Maclean clan

Some of the "wildlife" on the route-  a few Highland cattle.

Typical scenery along the trail on the Isle of Mull
The heather was in full bloom throughout


A buzzard perched in a handy spot.

Note the phonebox


We did lots of riding along the coast

the beach at Calgary bay


Below is Tobermory, a charming little town with lots of brightly painted houses, shops and good restaurants. 



And this was our ship out in the harbour



And this is how they got the bikes (and us) from shore to ship.

In the lock at Corpach leading into Neptune's Staircase and Loch Lochy.  This was the only day we had rain, lots of it!  and then about 3pm it stopped and we went for a 2 hour ride up the canal and back




Back in Oban where we climbed the hill to visit McQuaig's tower
and on the way found this cute cottage and lovely garden and some yarn bombing


It was a great trip and I thoroughly enjoyed my electric bicycle.  I think the highlands would have been a wee dram too much.

The last point on our cycling-  at the end of the canal.
I hope you've enjoyed seeing the pictures and places.  I love to hear if you've travelled here too. 

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