This epic tour took us from Loch Lomond to Lochinver via Skye, Raasay and the Outer Hebrides. The most remarkable fact about the tour is that it was completely unremarkable. Nothing went wrong. The trains were on time, we didn't miss any ferries, nobody suffered any serious accidents or cycle breakdowns, and the weather was adequately dry and sunny for most of the tour. Everything went exactly according to plan. Which means, of course, that there isn't a lot to say in this report!

Getting a group of sixteen to Scotland with bikes is difficult enough, but it's even more complicated when participants come from different parts of the UK. The aim was to get everyone to join the 0716 Penzance to Glasgow train at their nearest station, loading bikes into the guard's van. The fourteen from Devon joined the train at Newton Abbot at 0956, Mark hopped on at Bristol Temple Meads, Stuart and James took a connecting train from Swindon and joined us at Cheltenham Spa and finally Paul Smith took a connecting train from Basingstoke to join us at Birmingham New Street at 1320. Everything went to plan and we arrived in Glasgow Central station on timeat 1745.

Ideally we would have liked to go all the way to our main starting point at Fort William, but it just wasn't possible to do that in a single day so we rode across Glasgow to Queen Street Station and took the local train to Balloch. From there it was just a short ride of around 2 miles to the spectacular Loch Lomond hostel, a huge mansion set on the shores of Loch Lomond. We had evening meals waiting for us when we arrived soon after 7.30.

We had to start early today so we could ride the five miles to Mallaig in time to catch the 1045 ferry to Armadale, on the Isle of Skye. We then rode around the island to Broadford where we were able to buy provisions for the evening and then continued to Sconser where we took the 1715 ferry to the Isle of Raasay. From here it was just a few miles' ride to the hostel. We had ridden around 40 miles today in total.

At Raasay hostel we discovered that Martin Hills liked his home comforts. The hostel is very simple, and it all became too much for Martin when the heavy rain began. He was cold and miserable and could find nothing nice to say about the poor little hostel. Admittedly the warden seemed to prefer the company of some older hostellers, treating our group rather coldly at times. For example, the tiny common room was the only warm place for sitting and chatting, but it was already full with the other hostellers. We therefore retired to our dormitory to make the best of the situation, and were told not to use the dormitory as a common room and not to keep walking in and out with wet feet!

Our ride today took us northwards onto the Isle of Lewis, although there was no obvious point that separated the two islands. After around 43 miles of rather barren landscape we finally reached Stornoway near the north of the island.

There is no youth hostel in Stornoway so Michael had arranged for us all to stay in bed and breakfasts. The Tower and Park guest houses in James Street took six and three respectively and Mrs Skinner in Francis Street took the remaining seven. Park didn't do meals though, so those in Park came to Mrs Skinner for their evening snacks, which turned out to be pretty good!

The ferry back to the mainland didn't leave until 1330 so we had the whole morning to look around Stornoway and buy gifts and food.

When the ferry came it was huge, taking a very large number of cars in addition to cyclists and foot passengers. The crossing at three and a half hours was also the longest we had yet experienced on the tour, so some took the precaution of taking sea-sickness tablets during the morning.

When we finally arrived at Ullapool at 5pm the hostel was less than a mile from the ferry terminal, overlooking the Loch. It was a fine, modern hostel located in what was clearly a popular tourist destination, so we had a very enjoyable stay.

Today's ride was almost the longest of the tour at 49 miles, crossing from the west coast to the East coast. Whilst there was certainly a bit of uphill at the start there was also a huge amount of downhill during the second half of the ride.

Wednesday night's hostel was certainly the most spectacular of the tour. Carbisdale Castle was given to the SYHA, and they have restored it as well as their limited funds will allow. We were given a lengthy guided tour of the hostel by the warden, complete with detailed descriptions of each of the many ghosts that regularly haunt the castle. Some members didn't feel too comfortable when the light was turned off that night!