The Planning
Our first family cycle tour so I wanted something familiar and relatively modest. Modest because I wasn't sure how it would go down and because there would be no cycling preparation. Distances needed to be limited but challenging and interesting.
I settled on a SYHA tour between Arran and Islay. Arran was somewhere we all knew so that was picked as our start and finish point and Islay was somewhere I also knew, having briefly visited on tour in 1993. A beautiful island and crucially quite flat, though flat as you'll see has it's disadvantages. The only stiff section was the short road between the Claonaig ferry and Kennacraig where the Islay ferry left: Here be climbing but as it was only 5 miles I figured we could manage that. The final ingredient of interest was the ferries themselves, nothing adds to a tour more than a ferry journey, makes you feel like you are going somewhere.
Originally I'd planned to do one end of Islay to the other but the Port Ellen ferry is not running this year due to pier work so it was to be a simple there and back journey, Lochranza Hostel to Port Charlotte Hostel via two ferries and back the same way, with a one day stay on Islay. A total of around 45 miles plus whatever we did on the island on our middle day.
The Tour
We left on the Sunday for Arran, booked on the 3.15 ferry and headed for Lochranza hostel for our single overnight stay. We took the car over with us as we intended to stay on Arran for 3 nights after the Islay trip. If we hadn't, we could have left the car in Ardrossan and taken the bikes from there. In the end I thought 3, rather than five days cycling was a better taster tour. I wanted them to enjoy it.
Lochranza hostel is a perfect place to start. it's newly refurbished and is the face of modern hostelling, with all day access and private en-suite rooms and if you haven't been hostelling for a while, no more chores to do in the morning, more like a simple hotel but with self-catering facilities thrown in.
Monday morning was a relaxed start, our ferry wasn't until 10.45, so there was plenty of time to sort the panniers and do a final tune-up on the bikes and we were ready in plenty of time, in fact we rushed off thinking we might make the 9.30 ferry but just missed it. It's no hardship sitting by the terminal though, watching the Gannets dive and drinking coffee from the rather nice sandwich shack. One thing I did note was the wind, which was pretty strong and I made everyone put their waterproofs on so they didn't get cold, as I remembered doing exactly that before I went over the Kennacraig road last time I was here on a bike and being thoroughly unprepared for the sudden climbing with cold limbs.
We duly embarked on the 10.45 ferry, for the 30 min journey from Lochranza to Claonaig, which was full with cars and about thirty bikes to boot. Disembarking on the other side we took a couple of minutes to strip back down for the ride, whilst clouds of cyclists disappeared in different directions and we then set off. In a few short pedal strokes, it became pretty clear the wind was going to play a major part in the day and was blowing fairly steadily at around 20mph into our faces and as we hit the first uphill, the clicking of gears signalled the first slow struggle of the day.
What surprised me was who was struggling though. Me and Mrs Crackle were firmly at the back and the two bobbing figures of son 1 and 2 disappeared up the slope and in what became the day's pattern, left us behind and waited further on for us to catch up. At this point though I figured they still had energy and things would change later.
It took us much longer in the wind to cover the 5 miles than I'd thought and at one point I worried about missing the Islay ferry, before finally cresting the hill and seeing the ferry port come into view with a lovely two mile downhill swoop leading to it. We set off down, looking forward to getting on, relaxing and eating some food. Breakfast seemed a long time ago now and everyone had worked hard for their 5 miles.
On board we all filled up on Caledonian MacBrayne carbohydrates and began feeling human again and ready for the ride across Islay, though we knew now, we'd be riding into the wind nearly all the way.
I'd warned everyone about the 10%ish climb out of Port Askaig and there was a determined look on the kids faces as we came off the ferry, re-mounted and set off. I led the way, pacing myself carefully. I was most of the way up when I heard son no1 have a big crunching mechanical gear change and stopped (phew) to check everything was OK, at which point son no2 sailed past and by the time I'd turned around, son no1 had completed the fastest chain re-ship in history and was already setting off past me. I caught them back up again at the top were we all re-grouped. Looking back down the hill, the kids were satisified to see that of the other 7 cyclists who'd come off the ferry, they were the only ones who'd cycled the whole hill. I said well done to son no2 and he wisely said back to me "Dad, it's just a matter of pacing yourself". Clearly a cyclist in the making.
Setting off again and the wind really began to play it's part. It started by hitting us hard off the side, pushing the kids about a lot but it soon changed to a relentless side-head and the relatively flat nature of Islay started telling against us. We only had 15 miles to do but we had to work hard all the way and in the last section heading around the beach to the final straight down to Port Charlotte, when it gusted, it nearly stopped the kids dead in their tracks. Son no1 was struggling the worst at this point and took the opportunity to crash out on one of the stops. Panniers are handy things sometimes!
It was with some relief that, as we headed down the final straight to Port Charlotte, the wind finally came behind us. Unusual, as it usually blows the other way (as the bent trees will tell you). Son no1 regained his strength at this point and we didn't see him again until the Youth Hostel some 5 miles later.
Port Charlotte Hostel is in a lovely spot and is run by a really nice couple who by chance that day had passed us on their scooter not long after we'd set off from Port Askaig. They were most impressed the kids had managed the wind and lavished praise on their efforts which went down well. It had taken it's toll though and there wasn't much help forthcoming during tea. In fact son no1 was spark out by 9 and son no2 by 9.30. I had planned to cycle again the next day, Tuesday but decided to re-think it. A quick look at the bus timetable and the distilleries in the area gave me an alternative. Islay is distillery heaven by the way. There are at least 9 distilleries on the island. If we hadn't had such a horrendous wind it would have been nice to cycle down to Portnahaven or over to the RSPB reserve at Loch Gruinart but I also had a weather eye on Wednesay when we had to go back. This forecast had failed to change it's mind over the 5 days I'd been checking and foretold relentless heavy rain and wind, lighter wind than we'd had but still strong. I was cheered to note it had changed direction and looked like it would be side tail all the way back. That was some relief but it would still be a test.
The next day dawned sunny and only breezy but the whisky distillery at Bowmore was still our destination. As son no2 remarked. "My bum wrecks". It was a beautiful day though, showing Islay at it's best.
Our destination, Bowmore is the Islands capital and boasts it's only supermarket, a co-op. It also has the Queens favourite tipple in the form of Bowmore single malt. We booked ourselves a tour of the distillery and as it turned out, we were the only ones on it, which made it very enjoyable. Of course you do a get a tipple at the end... well three, actually but who's counting, hic!
Tour and shopping done, we caught the post bus back to the Hostel and spent the afternoon lazing on the beach in the sun. All round very satisfying.
Wednesday's forecast weather didn't disappoint. I went to the toilet sometime during the night and could hear the rain hitting the Hostel roof and it was still sheeting it down just as much in the morning when we got up for breakfast. We set off, waterproofs on and Sam Browne belts and lights prominent.
Of course the rain was miserable, hence no pictures for this section but not as bad as I feared and the tail wind gave us good progress. We arrived back in Port Askaig some 3 hours before the ferry arrived and an hour quicker than it took us the other way and took refuge in the hotel for dinner and to dry out. There isn't much in Port Askaig so the time dragged a little. We did transfer to the CalMac waiting lounge which we discovered was much warmer than the hotel and allowed us to do some final drying out. Food at the hotel was excellent by the way but a tadge pricey.
The ferry back is worth mentioning as it was the brand new MV Finlaggan, quite the spankiest CalMac ship I've ever been on and a complete contrast to MV Isle of Arran we'd come across on. Two decks of opulent luxury after a miserable rainy day felt very indulgent. They even have showers on board if you want one.
Of course we still had the five miles back over to Claonaig to do and it was really raining now. We had an hour and a half to do it and catch the last ferry back to Lochranza at 7.00pm. Plenty of time we hoped, though Mrs Crackle handed me her bike at the bottom of the hill up and said she'd be quicker walking than cycling and I could push it up! The rain was so heavy as I trudged up that it was stinging my eyes. Son no2 kept me company, bobbing up and down slowly just ahead of me but son no1 had decided he wasn't hanging about and I saw his bike disappear up the hill. I saw him a couple of times again, pausing just long enough to catch sight of us before he pressed on. He finally waited for us just before the turn off for the ferry and we all rode the last bit together.
It did cross my mind on the way to the ferry that they did cancel it in bad weather and it was bad. In my head I prepared a back up plan just in case. We arrived in plenty of time and it was with some relief we saw the ferry appear through the murk. It wasn't until they tried to dock and lower the ramp that I realized this was going to be touch and go. The ferry was being chucked everywhere and the ramp was a giant seesaw. The two or three cars coming off were fired off by frantic signals between bucking motions by concerned ferry staff and every one scraped it's front end on the concrete up ramp as it was kicked off by the sea.
We were signalled on frantically and as I started off with son no1 the sea crashed over our feet, we were briefly climbing up the ramp and then charging down the other side. I turned to see son no.2 stutter a bit on the ramp before a crew member grabbed his bike and with a heave and a shout of, "Come on Wee Man!" hauled him on board. I looked at the crewman and said "that was close" and he said "Aye, well we landed, so we had to get you on". It was pretty clear they probably shouldn't have landed but we were damn glad they had and grins all round broke out at the relief and accomplishment of having conquered a miserable day.
Lochranza YHA was a welcome sight and home for the next three nights.
Logisitcs
Bikes - The kids bikes were a Ridgeback MX24, I fitted a rack to this and changed the tyres from pure mtn bike tyres to a hybrid tyre with a good central tread. Son no1 had a Scott Voltage which I only needed to fit a disc specific rack too and pump the jump tyres up hard. I debated changing his saddle and would on a longer tour. I took my mtn bike, an old Bear Valley rigid, no changes needed for this. Mrs Crackle's Specialized Hardrock had the handlebars changed, as she didn't like the straight bars, road tyres fitted and mudguards.
Panniers - I really only had to buy the kids some cheap ones from SJS cycles on ebay, we had two other sets. The SJS ones have a slightly rubbish mounting system which was a bit flimsy but survived, not bad for the £12 they cost and I can improve the mounting system for future tours.
Clothes & personal stuff - We took two changes of cycling clothes, one would have done but the 2nd came in handy whilst waiting for the ferry on the third rainy day. We also each had a pair of casual clothes for the evening and the kids a dry and wet pair of shoes. Fleeces were carried in a seperate bag on my rack. Toiletries were carried in zip seal bags and I bought some travel size toiletries for the tour. Electronics were also put in zip seal bags, inside other bags. Of course that only works if you seal the bag and son no2 soaked his ipod and then switched it on before I could stop him.
Food - I devoted one pannier to this for the four of us. We carried a few staples and breakfast stuff and bought the evening food on the day. Even so milk, bread, margarine, jam, cereal, eggs and a few other things takes up a fair amount of space.
Costs - A dedicated hostel room is about £70 to £80 a night. I guess you have to weigh that up against B&B costs or hotel costs and eating out for four. At least in a hostel you can cook your own meals. You can get a dorm bed for about £11 to £14.
Ferries are about £5-8 for a 30 minute crossing and £16 for a 2 hour crossing. Bikes are free and kids half the adult cost.
A word on the roads - Generally quiet and the drivers considerate. It's one of the reasons I chose this tour. I had no concerns with the kids cycling ahead on their own. They were in a poor state though. I can't ever remember seeing them as bad as they are now in this area and I've been visiting for 30 years or so.
Our first family cycle tour so I wanted something familiar and relatively modest. Modest because I wasn't sure how it would go down and because there would be no cycling preparation. Distances needed to be limited but challenging and interesting.
I settled on a SYHA tour between Arran and Islay. Arran was somewhere we all knew so that was picked as our start and finish point and Islay was somewhere I also knew, having briefly visited on tour in 1993. A beautiful island and crucially quite flat, though flat as you'll see has it's disadvantages. The only stiff section was the short road between the Claonaig ferry and Kennacraig where the Islay ferry left: Here be climbing but as it was only 5 miles I figured we could manage that. The final ingredient of interest was the ferries themselves, nothing adds to a tour more than a ferry journey, makes you feel like you are going somewhere.
Originally I'd planned to do one end of Islay to the other but the Port Ellen ferry is not running this year due to pier work so it was to be a simple there and back journey, Lochranza Hostel to Port Charlotte Hostel via two ferries and back the same way, with a one day stay on Islay. A total of around 45 miles plus whatever we did on the island on our middle day.
The Tour
We left on the Sunday for Arran, booked on the 3.15 ferry and headed for Lochranza hostel for our single overnight stay. We took the car over with us as we intended to stay on Arran for 3 nights after the Islay trip. If we hadn't, we could have left the car in Ardrossan and taken the bikes from there. In the end I thought 3, rather than five days cycling was a better taster tour. I wanted them to enjoy it.
Lochranza hostel is a perfect place to start. it's newly refurbished and is the face of modern hostelling, with all day access and private en-suite rooms and if you haven't been hostelling for a while, no more chores to do in the morning, more like a simple hotel but with self-catering facilities thrown in.
Monday morning was a relaxed start, our ferry wasn't until 10.45, so there was plenty of time to sort the panniers and do a final tune-up on the bikes and we were ready in plenty of time, in fact we rushed off thinking we might make the 9.30 ferry but just missed it. It's no hardship sitting by the terminal though, watching the Gannets dive and drinking coffee from the rather nice sandwich shack. One thing I did note was the wind, which was pretty strong and I made everyone put their waterproofs on so they didn't get cold, as I remembered doing exactly that before I went over the Kennacraig road last time I was here on a bike and being thoroughly unprepared for the sudden climbing with cold limbs.
We duly embarked on the 10.45 ferry, for the 30 min journey from Lochranza to Claonaig, which was full with cars and about thirty bikes to boot. Disembarking on the other side we took a couple of minutes to strip back down for the ride, whilst clouds of cyclists disappeared in different directions and we then set off. In a few short pedal strokes, it became pretty clear the wind was going to play a major part in the day and was blowing fairly steadily at around 20mph into our faces and as we hit the first uphill, the clicking of gears signalled the first slow struggle of the day.
What surprised me was who was struggling though. Me and Mrs Crackle were firmly at the back and the two bobbing figures of son 1 and 2 disappeared up the slope and in what became the day's pattern, left us behind and waited further on for us to catch up. At this point though I figured they still had energy and things would change later.
It took us much longer in the wind to cover the 5 miles than I'd thought and at one point I worried about missing the Islay ferry, before finally cresting the hill and seeing the ferry port come into view with a lovely two mile downhill swoop leading to it. We set off down, looking forward to getting on, relaxing and eating some food. Breakfast seemed a long time ago now and everyone had worked hard for their 5 miles.
On board we all filled up on Caledonian MacBrayne carbohydrates and began feeling human again and ready for the ride across Islay, though we knew now, we'd be riding into the wind nearly all the way.
I'd warned everyone about the 10%ish climb out of Port Askaig and there was a determined look on the kids faces as we came off the ferry, re-mounted and set off. I led the way, pacing myself carefully. I was most of the way up when I heard son no1 have a big crunching mechanical gear change and stopped (phew) to check everything was OK, at which point son no2 sailed past and by the time I'd turned around, son no1 had completed the fastest chain re-ship in history and was already setting off past me. I caught them back up again at the top were we all re-grouped. Looking back down the hill, the kids were satisified to see that of the other 7 cyclists who'd come off the ferry, they were the only ones who'd cycled the whole hill. I said well done to son no2 and he wisely said back to me "Dad, it's just a matter of pacing yourself". Clearly a cyclist in the making.
Setting off again and the wind really began to play it's part. It started by hitting us hard off the side, pushing the kids about a lot but it soon changed to a relentless side-head and the relatively flat nature of Islay started telling against us. We only had 15 miles to do but we had to work hard all the way and in the last section heading around the beach to the final straight down to Port Charlotte, when it gusted, it nearly stopped the kids dead in their tracks. Son no1 was struggling the worst at this point and took the opportunity to crash out on one of the stops. Panniers are handy things sometimes!
It was with some relief that, as we headed down the final straight to Port Charlotte, the wind finally came behind us. Unusual, as it usually blows the other way (as the bent trees will tell you). Son no1 regained his strength at this point and we didn't see him again until the Youth Hostel some 5 miles later.
Port Charlotte Hostel is in a lovely spot and is run by a really nice couple who by chance that day had passed us on their scooter not long after we'd set off from Port Askaig. They were most impressed the kids had managed the wind and lavished praise on their efforts which went down well. It had taken it's toll though and there wasn't much help forthcoming during tea. In fact son no1 was spark out by 9 and son no2 by 9.30. I had planned to cycle again the next day, Tuesday but decided to re-think it. A quick look at the bus timetable and the distilleries in the area gave me an alternative. Islay is distillery heaven by the way. There are at least 9 distilleries on the island. If we hadn't had such a horrendous wind it would have been nice to cycle down to Portnahaven or over to the RSPB reserve at Loch Gruinart but I also had a weather eye on Wednesay when we had to go back. This forecast had failed to change it's mind over the 5 days I'd been checking and foretold relentless heavy rain and wind, lighter wind than we'd had but still strong. I was cheered to note it had changed direction and looked like it would be side tail all the way back. That was some relief but it would still be a test.
The next day dawned sunny and only breezy but the whisky distillery at Bowmore was still our destination. As son no2 remarked. "My bum wrecks". It was a beautiful day though, showing Islay at it's best.
Our destination, Bowmore is the Islands capital and boasts it's only supermarket, a co-op. It also has the Queens favourite tipple in the form of Bowmore single malt. We booked ourselves a tour of the distillery and as it turned out, we were the only ones on it, which made it very enjoyable. Of course you do a get a tipple at the end... well three, actually but who's counting, hic!
Tour and shopping done, we caught the post bus back to the Hostel and spent the afternoon lazing on the beach in the sun. All round very satisfying.
Wednesday's forecast weather didn't disappoint. I went to the toilet sometime during the night and could hear the rain hitting the Hostel roof and it was still sheeting it down just as much in the morning when we got up for breakfast. We set off, waterproofs on and Sam Browne belts and lights prominent.
Of course the rain was miserable, hence no pictures for this section but not as bad as I feared and the tail wind gave us good progress. We arrived back in Port Askaig some 3 hours before the ferry arrived and an hour quicker than it took us the other way and took refuge in the hotel for dinner and to dry out. There isn't much in Port Askaig so the time dragged a little. We did transfer to the CalMac waiting lounge which we discovered was much warmer than the hotel and allowed us to do some final drying out. Food at the hotel was excellent by the way but a tadge pricey.
The ferry back is worth mentioning as it was the brand new MV Finlaggan, quite the spankiest CalMac ship I've ever been on and a complete contrast to MV Isle of Arran we'd come across on. Two decks of opulent luxury after a miserable rainy day felt very indulgent. They even have showers on board if you want one.
Of course we still had the five miles back over to Claonaig to do and it was really raining now. We had an hour and a half to do it and catch the last ferry back to Lochranza at 7.00pm. Plenty of time we hoped, though Mrs Crackle handed me her bike at the bottom of the hill up and said she'd be quicker walking than cycling and I could push it up! The rain was so heavy as I trudged up that it was stinging my eyes. Son no2 kept me company, bobbing up and down slowly just ahead of me but son no1 had decided he wasn't hanging about and I saw his bike disappear up the hill. I saw him a couple of times again, pausing just long enough to catch sight of us before he pressed on. He finally waited for us just before the turn off for the ferry and we all rode the last bit together.
It did cross my mind on the way to the ferry that they did cancel it in bad weather and it was bad. In my head I prepared a back up plan just in case. We arrived in plenty of time and it was with some relief we saw the ferry appear through the murk. It wasn't until they tried to dock and lower the ramp that I realized this was going to be touch and go. The ferry was being chucked everywhere and the ramp was a giant seesaw. The two or three cars coming off were fired off by frantic signals between bucking motions by concerned ferry staff and every one scraped it's front end on the concrete up ramp as it was kicked off by the sea.
We were signalled on frantically and as I started off with son no1 the sea crashed over our feet, we were briefly climbing up the ramp and then charging down the other side. I turned to see son no.2 stutter a bit on the ramp before a crew member grabbed his bike and with a heave and a shout of, "Come on Wee Man!" hauled him on board. I looked at the crewman and said "that was close" and he said "Aye, well we landed, so we had to get you on". It was pretty clear they probably shouldn't have landed but we were damn glad they had and grins all round broke out at the relief and accomplishment of having conquered a miserable day.
Lochranza YHA was a welcome sight and home for the next three nights.
Logisitcs
Bikes - The kids bikes were a Ridgeback MX24, I fitted a rack to this and changed the tyres from pure mtn bike tyres to a hybrid tyre with a good central tread. Son no1 had a Scott Voltage which I only needed to fit a disc specific rack too and pump the jump tyres up hard. I debated changing his saddle and would on a longer tour. I took my mtn bike, an old Bear Valley rigid, no changes needed for this. Mrs Crackle's Specialized Hardrock had the handlebars changed, as she didn't like the straight bars, road tyres fitted and mudguards.
Panniers - I really only had to buy the kids some cheap ones from SJS cycles on ebay, we had two other sets. The SJS ones have a slightly rubbish mounting system which was a bit flimsy but survived, not bad for the £12 they cost and I can improve the mounting system for future tours.
Clothes & personal stuff - We took two changes of cycling clothes, one would have done but the 2nd came in handy whilst waiting for the ferry on the third rainy day. We also each had a pair of casual clothes for the evening and the kids a dry and wet pair of shoes. Fleeces were carried in a seperate bag on my rack. Toiletries were carried in zip seal bags and I bought some travel size toiletries for the tour. Electronics were also put in zip seal bags, inside other bags. Of course that only works if you seal the bag and son no2 soaked his ipod and then switched it on before I could stop him.
Food - I devoted one pannier to this for the four of us. We carried a few staples and breakfast stuff and bought the evening food on the day. Even so milk, bread, margarine, jam, cereal, eggs and a few other things takes up a fair amount of space.
Costs - A dedicated hostel room is about £70 to £80 a night. I guess you have to weigh that up against B&B costs or hotel costs and eating out for four. At least in a hostel you can cook your own meals. You can get a dorm bed for about £11 to £14.
Ferries are about £5-8 for a 30 minute crossing and £16 for a 2 hour crossing. Bikes are free and kids half the adult cost.
A word on the roads - Generally quiet and the drivers considerate. It's one of the reasons I chose this tour. I had no concerns with the kids cycling ahead on their own. They were in a poor state though. I can't ever remember seeing them as bad as they are now in this area and I've been visiting for 30 years or so.
