Their story, in their words…
What we did:
9th August
Our coach arrived on time in Inverness at 11.50am on 9th August. We then made our way to the bike hire place where we sorted everything out and received our bikes by 1pm. Once we set off, we arrived at Falls of Foyers where we made it by 8pm. We found a campsite where we set up for the first night. The journey from Inverness to Foyers was 20 miles.
10th August
Using the facilities they provided, we cleaned up and set out towards Fort Augustus. This was another 20-mile journey which was more difficult as it was uphill. We reached at around 2pm as we didn’t want to wear ourselves out. Once we stocked up on essential supplies, we cycled around the city to explore. We then found a campsite, and set up our camp there for the second night.
11th August
After freshening up, we went around the end of the Loch Ness and headed back towards Fort Augustus. We then cycled another 20 miles back to Falls of Foyers where we set up our camp for the second time on that trip. Considering the excellent hospitality of the campers and majority downhill route, we enjoyed this day very much.
12th August
On this day, we set on back towards Inverness using the 20-mile route that we used on the first day. Seen as we got back at around 1pm, we cycled around for a bit then gave in our bikes. We then walked to a campsite after walking around the city for a while. After staying at that campsite for a while, we went to the coach station for our coach at 6.45am in the morning the next day.
How it worked out
Unfortunately, our trip did not go exactly to plan but we were still able to complete the trip and the entire 80 miles we discussed. An obstacle we faced was the inability to complete the north half of the Loch Ness trail. This is because they are A roads, and we were told by multiple sources that the road was too dangerous to cycle upon and the deviation we would have had to take would have resulted in us being late for our coach as we would not have made it back to Inverness on time. Another difficulty we faced was the steep uphill gradient on the route from Foyers to Fort Augustus. However, since we did take the same route back, there was a lot of downhills and it was a very pleasing journey considering we were able to conserve our energy and enjoy the ride back.
How we felt about it
I would like to think all members of the team were very pleased with the trip. It was an exciting opportunity for us to be pushed out of our comfort zone during a holiday and create new friendships as well as understanding how other campers live. I think we were disappointed with the fact that we were unable to complete the top half of the trail. Our next mission will be to find the time to be able to complete the top trail of the Loch Ness
What we got out of it
This was a very fun trip which I believe that gave all 3 of us a lot of experience and skills that we can use in the future should we ever choose to do something like this again, which I think we will. For example, we learnt:
- How to set up a tent
- How to follow OS maps
- How to conserve energy
- How to ration food and drink
- How to plan a trip on our own
- How to save money
These are just some of the skills we learnt but there were more, and we will be sure to apply them in the future.
Thank you to the Mark Evison Foundation for this wonderful opportunity.
