Around The Long Island

Unwilling to travel far with COVID-19 still very present, we wanted to put together a journey that would give us some of the same excitement and curiosity as a trip abroad. Scotland is small. The whole of the UK would fit into the USA forty times! Planning a “wilderness” trip of a week or more requires some creativity.

Salsa Mukluk fat tire bike laying on a single lane dirt road through green meadow.

The Outer Hebrides are a chain of islands that lie off the northwest of Scotland. They are a stronghold for traditional crofting and around 60% of islanders speak Gaelic. Even coming from the Highlands, these islands can feel like a whole world apart.

Annie rides her fat tire bike through a sea of yellow and pink wildflowers.

It only takes a glance at an aerial image of The Uists (a group of six islands part of the Outer Hebrides) to see the huge expanses of beaches that run down the west coast. These beaches help create machair, a fragile wildflower habitat that is found only here and Ireland. It is one of the rarest habitats in the world and is home to endangered bees and birds.

Huw stands arms raised in victory on the beach, alongside his loaded fat tire bike.

Having completed an amazing journey in North Uist several years previously, we decided to see if our paddling skills had improved enough for a circumnavigation of South Uist. We would use fat tire bikes to ride down the west-coast beaches and packrafts to paddle up the exposed east coast.

Annie rides the sandy shore of a cobbled beach as waves break alongside her.

We arrived to some wild Atlantic weather. Riding the empty beaches with frothing surf and booming waves was incredible. Huge kelp fronds were washing up everywhere and big groups of Dunlins rushed in and out of the foamy edges, looking for dinner. Our Mukluks ate up the sandy expanses, tyres whirring delightfully as we weaved through the waves in search of the firmest sand. Our second day turned up a huge whale spine, curving into the sand on the storm line. It felt so humbling to be dwarfed by the remains of a giant. Later, the low tide revealed a shipwreck, its hull just protruding up through the white sand. It felt like the land was old and full of stories washed up by the tide.

Two red packrafts with fat tire bikes loaded on their bows lay among thick beds of exposed kelp.

With fat tire bike on the bow, Annie paddles her packraft across the glassy water between islands.

After three days of riding into a wet mist and gale-force headwinds, we reached the end of the beaches and rode across to the east coast. This side is sheltered from the wind and features huge cliffs rising out of the water, with caves, sea stacks and skerries (small islands) making for a very interesting paddle. Seals followed us constantly as we hitched a lift north on the tides and tailwinds. Low tide revealed thick layers of bladder wrack (a type of seaweed), with otters hunting for crunchy treats beneath the curtains of yellow and green.

Huw sits in front of the tent preparing a meal, discarded fishing buoys lying nearby.

Huw floats in emerald-green water, in a narrow rocky passageway formed by millennia of oceanic sculpting.

Journeying by fat tire bike and packraft is a slow way to travel. It gives plenty of time to admire the places you pass by, and time to see and listen. We completed our trip covered in sand and salt, feeling like we had come to understand something of the creatures and rhythms of these islands. We felt less like passers-by and more like old friends. Sometimes that is what we need most.

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Huw and Annie's article on Bikepacking.com; FINDING CENTRE: BIKERAFTING THE OUTER HEBRIDES

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