NC500 - The Braw Brichtness of it all...
Bloody hell! Where has the time gone? I've been off blogger for nearly one month and didn't know it. Thanks for reminding me Mark!
Tomorrow we're off to see the Scottish Wizard and follow the Braw Bricht road. All together now..
'Follow the Braw Bricht road, follow the Braw Bricht road, la, la-la, la-la, la.. follow the Braw Bricht road!'
I've mad images of Dorothy and Toto spinning in our wheels as though we've been in an overloaded Wicked Witch of the West biking accident somewhere on this mad 500 mile route.
OK I apologise. I've been busy. My garden no longer resembles the edge of a rainforest with Brazilian farmers looking up at it and saying 'feck that for a game of conquistadores' before frogging off to find an easier bit of forest to demolish.
But, hey, I've also been out on my bike. Bigger and longer loops out of York last month cumulating this week with a 4 day ride out with everything on the bike including the kitchen sink taking in Hornsea, Scarborough, Whitby, Stokesley, Northallerton, Thirsk and back home. Like this:
That's @200 miles with approx 5000ft of ascent with 3 nights camping, living off bottled water and compo rations. Legs are quite sore but still quite OK. In that when I need them they can still give me a spurt on. It was a great little ride out!
I have lots to tell from that particular jaunt, like seeing billowing smoke on a distant hillside that turned into a giant greenfly swarm (Gaaah! they get everywhere! Psszzft, Psszzft!) and of cycling along high sheep infested rocky trails that could have been some lonely goat infested track in the middle of Kazakhstan. Today is a mad prep day for tomorrow's departure and so I will write more about it when I have a bit more spare time, I hope later today.
So the Scottish 500 thing is starting Tuesday next week for me and Mr Walls. That's 500 miles that whichever way we look at it we can ot split between us and with not a flat bit of road in sight. For any of it. Like this:
Google says this is 501 miles and 24000ft of ascent. To be done in 13 days. Ulp! Who thought up this particular hair brained plan. Er....
All contingency planning has been taken care of in case we have problems on the route. Like legs dying. On some sections we can use the train to help us along for a few miles so those tickets have been bought in advance. In other places I've booked accommodation which we might not use.
For example the route from Lochcarron to Torridon takes us to Applecross via the Bealach Na Ba pass. That's 2000ft straight up for 7 miles on an average 6-7% gradient. That's a huge hike on loaded bikes. So in case the pass beats us I've booked an additional night in Torridon rather than be beaten and then find ourselves with no place to stay in a very remote part of Scotland. God willing though we will do it and somewhere over the rainbow we will land all black and white (and blue) back home @ 3rd June.
Anyway I must crack on with prep stuff.
More will be writ later my dearest Munchkins!
Tomorrow we're off to see the Scottish Wizard and follow the Braw Bricht road. All together now..
'Follow the Braw Bricht road, follow the Braw Bricht road, la, la-la, la-la, la.. follow the Braw Bricht road!'
I've mad images of Dorothy and Toto spinning in our wheels as though we've been in an overloaded Wicked Witch of the West biking accident somewhere on this mad 500 mile route.
OK I apologise. I've been busy. My garden no longer resembles the edge of a rainforest with Brazilian farmers looking up at it and saying 'feck that for a game of conquistadores' before frogging off to find an easier bit of forest to demolish.
But, hey, I've also been out on my bike. Bigger and longer loops out of York last month cumulating this week with a 4 day ride out with everything on the bike including the kitchen sink taking in Hornsea, Scarborough, Whitby, Stokesley, Northallerton, Thirsk and back home. Like this:
That's @200 miles with approx 5000ft of ascent with 3 nights camping, living off bottled water and compo rations. Legs are quite sore but still quite OK. In that when I need them they can still give me a spurt on. It was a great little ride out!
I have lots to tell from that particular jaunt, like seeing billowing smoke on a distant hillside that turned into a giant greenfly swarm (Gaaah! they get everywhere! Psszzft, Psszzft!) and of cycling along high sheep infested rocky trails that could have been some lonely goat infested track in the middle of Kazakhstan. Today is a mad prep day for tomorrow's departure and so I will write more about it when I have a bit more spare time, I hope later today.
So the Scottish 500 thing is starting Tuesday next week for me and Mr Walls. That's 500 miles that whichever way we look at it we can ot split between us and with not a flat bit of road in sight. For any of it. Like this:
Google says this is 501 miles and 24000ft of ascent. To be done in 13 days. Ulp! Who thought up this particular hair brained plan. Er....
All contingency planning has been taken care of in case we have problems on the route. Like legs dying. On some sections we can use the train to help us along for a few miles so those tickets have been bought in advance. In other places I've booked accommodation which we might not use.
For example the route from Lochcarron to Torridon takes us to Applecross via the Bealach Na Ba pass. That's 2000ft straight up for 7 miles on an average 6-7% gradient. That's a huge hike on loaded bikes. So in case the pass beats us I've booked an additional night in Torridon rather than be beaten and then find ourselves with no place to stay in a very remote part of Scotland. God willing though we will do it and somewhere over the rainbow we will land all black and white (and blue) back home @ 3rd June.
Anyway I must crack on with prep stuff.
More will be writ later my dearest Munchkins!
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