Friday was to be the final day and predominatly featured a dash for The Butt of Lewis on road bikes, but not before some other 'fun and games'. Friday's first summit was the high point on West Lewis - Mealaisbhal - which at 574m and rising straight from the Atlantic, gives great views of St.Kilda, and back towards the high hills of Harris, and yesterday's routes. A rough MTB track gives access to a glen valley bisecting these hills and a route through to Loch Tamnabhaigh. The alternative was to road bike around the coastal road, but you truely are starting from sea level, so 574 metres feels like a lot more.
A second 'High Point' of the day was Callanish Standing Stones, and coffee at the visitor centre. Why? well you don't want to come here and miss out on what is the northern version of Stonehenge, which Wilko had raced past two years ago without noticing. Callanish is also situated on a penisula which juts out into Loch Rog An Ear and is where the kayakers had exited the water after a relatively calm paddle, and with the sun shining brightly.
From here, the northern reaches of Lewis are a vast rough wilderness and in previous year's I have biked and 'run' across sections of this. However, the much more sensible option is to blast up the main coastal road, a gentle undulating roller coaster, most usually with a tail wind. This 35 mile ride put big grins on all faces and I was very pleased to, more or less, greet everyone at The But as we finished within an hour or so of each other.
That's it. B2B over - it worked, just! All which remained was a night out in Stornoway at the new cury house for those on the early Saturday ferry, or an impromptu party at The Cross Inn, just south of The Butt, thanks to Emma and her Smart phone and parents.
Thank you to everyone who came and made it a success; there were some lessons learned, but the greatest is that we can all have fun and adventure without too much organisation. Less is definitely More, so what about next year? The weather's good in May, apparently.
Joe
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