Western Isles and Highlands 2000

Prologue :

Ever since I bought my first "proper" touring bicycle I’d liked the idea of touring the Outer Hebrides and Western Highlands of Scotland.  I'd done a limited amount of walking in Scotland before and had spent a few days travelling around Skye by car but I wanted to see more and a cycle camping tour seemed the best way of doing it.

 This trip was originally planned for May 1999, but Geoff Husband of Breton Bikes http://www.bretonbikes.com/ twisted my arm and I spent a wonderful two weeks in Haute-Savoie instead.   This year was going to be different, ignoring Geoff's pleas to come to the Pyrenees I booked three weeks off work and bought a rail ticket from Liverpool to Oban and a ferry ticket that would allow me to travel from Oban to the islands of Barra, South Uist, Benbecula, North Uist, Harris and Lewis and finally back to Ullapool on the mainland from where I planned to cycle to Cape Wrath, the most North Westerly point of the British Isles.

I planned the trip for early May 2000, May and June are supposedly the best time to visit Scotland, the weather is as reliable as it can be (!) and the dreaded Midges have not come out of hibernation.