On Sunday we rode from the west coast to the east coast, ably assisted by a tailwind. We arrived at Carbisdale so early that there was time for some to take rides on motorised buggies - £6 for fifteen minutes around a dirt track!


Carbisdale Castle hostel is definitely the largest and most spectacular in Scotland. It boasts 230 beds, towers, halls lined with statues and valuable works of art, secret passages and numerous grand rooms including a library. We didn't notice any ghosts on this occasion, even though some of us slept in the Spook Room!

Michael expected a headwind for Monday's ride (there had been one on every previous tour) so we left very early to be sure of catching the only train from Inverness. In the event the air was calm and the ride was relatively easy. We arrived in time to buy pizzas and do some souvenir shopping, and then set about the task of loading bikes into the guard's van. This was a tricky operation: the train is only supposed to take ten bikes, but the station manager had promised that he would try to fit all the bikes onto the train. Fortunately we got them all on.

Edinburgh was alive with the Edinburgh Festival, but we were only interested in getting to the hostel. Being an inner city hostel there were electronic security gates and closed circuit television cameras at the entrance. And this was the only hostel where our milk and bread had not been reserved!

On Tuesday morning we rode back to Edinburgh station and assigned groups of three, four and five to another five train services - it was a bit tiring running between the twenty different platforms at Waverly station. The last laugh of the tour was had by Michael, Neil and Robert who saw Daniel (from Cheddar) buy a huge bottle of coke for the journey home and then drop it between our waiting train and the platform. No matter how much he pleaded with the station staff they wouldn't let him go down to get it, so he just had to buy another one!

We had a lot of fun on this tour despite some unfortunate weather during the first few days. We're all looking forward to next year's trip to Norfolk, Suffolk and the Fens - will you be joining us?