“It’s a dangerous business, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no telling where you might be swept off to.”
– J.R.R Tolkien
“There’s nary an animal alive that can outrun a greased Scotsman.”
– Groundskeeper Willie (Scotland’s Ambassador to the World)
Greetings All,
I suppose we should kick things off with a bit of a catch-up. Those of you who don’t subscribe to Mark Zuckerberg’s omnipotent yet highly exclusive group “The Facebook” might be wondering what happened to Rachel and Steve?Rest assured, we are alive and well; the rumors of our death have been greatly exaggerated. So, what have we been up to? Well, our journey on the PCT drew to a close. Over the course of a month and over 400km of walking, we decided to goodnight that chapter. Not because the hike was too hard – I actually enjoyed digging a “poop hole” every morning – but because it was time to move on.
Upon our return to Calgary, we immediately enrolled in an 80 hour, advanced wilderness medical first responder course, which was really cool and something we’d been wanting to do for a while. But when that was over, we were kinda lost. What to do with our time? We still had months before we had to be back at work.
We were sitting in our workshop in the garage one day and I asked Rachel, “If you could go anywhere and do anything, what would you choose?”. She said she’d like to cycle Ireland. We looked into it and discovered the existence of the North Sea Cycle Route, spanning 7 countries through the UK and Europe. A quick phone call to Air Canada and 3 weeks later, we’re sitting in Scotland. So, what’s happened since we arrived in the land of kilts and haggis? Well, if you’re sitting comfortably, then I’ll begin…
We flew Air Canada Rouge, which is their econo-line, so it’s a bit like a giant, flying, Dodge minivan, complete with all manner of screaming children. Our flight options were limited though and by sticking with AC we were able to fly our bikes for free which saved us a ton of cash. All things told, the flight was fine, but the real show was outside the aircraft!
Our flight path took us over Greenland and Iceland, and since it was late June, the sun never really set. It just hung on the horizon in a perpetual quasi sunrise/sunset that seemed to last forever. Very cool!
We landed in Glasgow at 6:30am, collected our stuff, grabbed a coffee, and began the bicycle assembly process. There really wasn’t a place to hide and as the airport began to fill up, we quickly became the center of attention as we wrenched on the bikes. Kinda like one of those Manhattan “living art” displays but without the benefit of a glass window. After a couple hours of futzing, everything was bolted together and we set out for our hotel in the dreary Glasgow rain.
We spent a few days in Glasgow: We did some shopping, slept off the jetlag, and managed to check out a few touristy things, including Glasgow’s largest Air BnB.
Complete with a creepy-ass graveyard.
We also toured the Tennents brewery: Famous for blending the worlds of beer and centerfold modeling.
Glaswegians do have a good sense of humor though, as evidenced by the rather fetching hat they’ve chosen for the statue at the center of town.
From Glasgow we hopped a train north as far as we could go, which deposited us at the town of Wick. From there we cycled to John o’ Groats, which is just about the northern most point on the mainland of Great Britain.
There isn’t much in John o’ Groats besides a campground, an old hotel, and this sign. In fact, the place was actually voted “Scotland’s Most Dismal Town” in 2010. We were fortunate to have excellent weather and didn’t find it dismal at all.
From there we jumped on a passenger ferry with our bikes and headed over to the Orkney islands to visit the town of Kirkwall.
We didn’t doddle long on the islands as we wanted to take advantage of the weather window. The land looked like it’d have a real bad attitude if the weather turned. We did see some interesting things including some old ship wrecks.
And these rather curious barbed wire “kilt entanglement devices”.
Used to keep the locals from climbing the power poles and licking the wires.
Once back on the mainland, the highlands served up wind, rain, and a seemingly unending parade of steep hills.
Scotland does 2 things very well. One, is castles. There are castles everywhere.
The other thing is sheep. Sheep roam the countryside….all over the countryside.
And while we didn’t see them, apparently the place is also inhabited by very flamboyant deer.
And speaking of crazy dancing, we attended a highland games where the kilts were a flappin’ and various feats of strength were on display.
We’ve seen so many cool things in the last 2 weeks that it’s hard to break it all down into a bite size piece for your consumption, but in the interests of brevity, I think I’ll say goodnight here. We’re currently south east of Inverness on our way to Aberdeen and Edinburgh. In the next blog update I’ll tell you about our search for the Loch Ness Monster and our run-in with the famed Highland Cow. (Hint: They look like a cross between a Texas Longhorn and David Lee Roth on a bad hair day.) Until then, I bid you peace, love and soul!
2 Canucks in a Tent 