Sarah Crowe

Amazing weather for late September on Orkney, in 13 yearsI can't ever remember weather like this. Added bonus today, no cruise ships in; so no coaches to contend with and relatively quiet roads and beautiful autumn light casting shadows across the stones, And obviously a coffee and cake stop as well..its a Sunday

I woke up to ridiculous crazy wind after a not great sleep of digestive issues. In any other situation I would not ride my bike in 26mph with 40mph gusts as I'm on the petite side of humanity; but I had my dad to meet, and I didn't want to do another train ride as it was a lovely sunny day and the views would be amazing. It was insane cycling to North Berwick with the tailwind, at times I just held on and the wind did the rest. I had the same through to Dunbar (thankfully both were on cycleways and not the main road) with just the connecting section dealing with a head and sidewind and having to hikebike. Despite the drama, it is a beautiful route and as said; I will return in 2026 but I plan to go east to west (as JM did from his birthtown to where he left for America from Port Glasgow) as I believe the camping opportunities are better and the WHW campsite better placed on the route.

Well I had to log it. and it did include a section of JMW. Although at this point I just wanted to get to hotel, the views were beautiful and next year, I hope to enjoy them so much more. Hotel was, as is everywhere overpriced but I was thankful to not be pitching a wet tent.

Day 1 had left us well behind schedule and we woke up to heavy rain; so having got packed up the enthusiasm (which tbh in general in the lounge, was lethargic) to stop drinking tea and charging devices was lacking..so it was 10am when we got going. As we got to the start of the asphalt disused railway section; I said a fairwell to Dave as agreed and spun off along the track which would be my companion for most of the day. Once the railway stopped; the towpath started with more no stress riding in a constant drizzle. I reached Bonneybridge which was are original stop point for night one after 2 hours and joined a quiet but heavy pot-holed road, then a skiddy railway access track before popping up onto the union canal. From here it descended into chaos; I promise next year; (when I will return to complete the route east to west) to not wish all the rain to south Scotland because all it did was left me wadding through ankle deep water and panicking that the trail would become impassible..I got through with a bike caked in mud and onto a nice gravel track through the forest to the Canada Wood bike trails and Cafe (at 1.30pm) which ironically had been where I planned to have breakfast, I had a lovely lunch and needed hour break, to charge phone etc; unfortunatly when I got up to leave my right knee was awful and for day 2 almost the beginning of the end. I struggled through to Falkirk and with my dad(who I was meeting the next day in Dunbar) got a room booked east of Edinburgh and made my way to the hotel on the train to Longniddry.

So storm something or other, a few years back had blocked a c. 200m section of the JMW between Helensburgh and Balloch and the two diversions were; cycleway to Balloch or Three Lochs Way (also with diversion) to Balloch; I was vetoed on the cycleway...big mistake. It took forever on the TLW diversion, lots of hikebike and the decent which somehow looks okay on every Youtube I watched, was mostly unrideable on a gravel and even my friends front suspension MTB. Still coffee in Balloch (to touristy and happy to leave behind); a really nice quiet road section where we met with a hedge cutting tractor and my friend got 4 punctures; I got told to go ahead and he ended up at a bike shop. A very muddy section of combined WHW/JMW which was also very enjoyable, lots of folk out on the WHW and finally a nice coffee at the 'Turnip the Beet' deli (good play of words) where now well behind schedule I discovered that the WHW campsite not far away. Fantastic campsite at £20 a night plus continental breakfast, amazing hot showers and a lounge with a log burner and also a hose to wash your bike down.