By the time you read this we'll be on a train heading for Edinburgh, where our Scottish cycling adventure begins. Two weeks off from our stint living in England — our last holiday before we set off to cycle around the world at the start of 2014.
We have a rough idea of the route, but as always we're staying open to detours, side trips and whatever comes up. We're keen to ride through the Scottish Highlands, visit the Isle of Skye and Loch Ness among other things. Can you believe Ilze had never heard of the Loch Ness Monster? I told her a few stories about it before bed — and now she's saying she doesn't want to camp by the loch.
Despite it being Scotland, we're hoping the weather holds at least a bit, which is why we're not planning to use much Couchsurfing or Warmshowers. The idea is to camp nearly every night wherever we can find a spot, for free.
Unlike our winter cycling trip through the English Midlands, this time we're going to try and keep you updated as we go. We'll be on social media, especially Instagram and Twitter, so follow us there if you don't want to miss anything.
We're also planning to log the GPS track of the route so we can look back at it afterwards. And we'll have the action camera along to shoot some video and timelapses when we're back — though we'll see how the moisture behaves (the lens fogs up) and how long the batteries actually last.
Getting ready to cycle Scotland
Our main concern is the Scottish midges — we've heard they're a full-on plague in summer and will absolutely hammer us, so we've packed head nets and a fly spray recommended by the locals. We'll report back on how well it worked.
During last week's ride through the Peak District we had our first encounter with their English cousins. We underestimated them on account of their size, and we're still scratching the bites — or trying very hard not to.
Flies aside, we're taking the usual kit, having dug out a couple of extra jumpers and jackets from our gear list. Part of the point of this trip is to work out what we actually need and what's dead weight.
3, 2, 1… Let's ride!
By the time you finish reading this we'll have eaten our sandwiches and be stepping off the train at Edinburgh Waverley, pushing up the hill into this beautiful city — where I spent a week back in 2011 during my first months travelling around Europe. And we'll be ready to ride Scotland by bike.
The only rule: enjoy it, and get to Inverness in time — by 19 September — where we catch a train back to Manchester and start the countdown to leaving England for good: the beginning of our round-the-world cycle trip.