tired of tubes!

Tubeless tires Do tyres have to be such a complicated business? It would appear so; Even the simple spelling of the word tyre is complicated! My keyboard is set for American English and puts my spelling of tyre as a mistake, is it?! when I start editing what I’ve wrote (its tiring; pun intended) The spelling tyre does not appear until the 1840s when people began shrink fitting railway car wheels with malleable iron. publishers continued using tire in Britain as late as 1905. The spelling tyre began to be commonly used in the 19th century for pneumatic (air filled) tires in the UK. The 1911 edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica stated that "The spelling 'tyre' is not now accepted by the best English authorities there is nothing to be said for 'tyre', which is etymologically wrong, (the origin of the word being to dress a wheel as in attire) tyre is needlessly divergent from British or older English & the present American usage" However, over the course of the 20th century, tyre became established as the standard British spelling, from here on in I am going American as their spelling is correct! This is mostly a cycling blog; I will stick with Bicycle tires, however; its worth mentioning the huge motorbike car truck and van tire industry. just because of the scale of worldwide industrial waste the industry creates, the design range for bicycle tires is huge! Some may be designed for riding on roads off roads mixed trail city tyres country tires slicks or nobblies for unimproved terrain. These days there is even a growing market for big fat tyres which are great for mud and sand a fashion thing for me, but: worth mentioning to show the unending choice, most bicycle tires are clincher type (they have a bead that presses against the wheel rim). With An inner tube which provides the air pressure and the contact pressure between bead and wheel rim, Inner tube wastage must be a much bigger wastage than tire wastage in the cycling world, in my garage I have a pile of around twenty inner tubes which are ones I have kept that have been punctured, the thinking is put in a fresh tube repair the other later (this never happens), I also have twelve brand new inner tubes of different sizes as spares for various bikes, it’s easier to carry a spare tube than do a repair at times, what to do with all these old tubes? Most cycle shops these days have a bin for them now, these tubes are then collected to get sent for upcycling (not an intended pun but I like it) I was given a new wallet for my birthday made from old bicycle tubes, it’s cool I like it I love all that ethical fair trade upcycling the daunder has Tubeless tires (which are) pneumatic tires that do not require a separate inner tube. I have previously had tubeless tires on motorbikes and obviously cars! but never on a bicycle, the daunders tires were recommended to me by the bike manufacturer, I was uncertain at the time? As I had no clue as to the benefits/or draw backs of these type of tires! I made a spur of the moment decision on the sales persons recommendation and went for it; this is the main reason for this blog page to decide if that was a wise decision or not? It’s not made a simple choice by manufacturers bike shops or fellow cyclists, as they all have their own angle on the subject of inner tube or no inner tube? Which is the future? The first questions for me were what sort of puncture repair kits do you take for tires like these? I stupidly asked no questions about the tires when I picked up the bike from the manufacturer, then; weeks later I was through at the Scottish outdoors enthusiasts show at the SSEC Glasgow, where I saw strange looking tubeless tire repair kits? I purchased a thing called the Nukeproof puncture repair kit, the first time I used this was on a snowy icy morning on Shetland, it worked amazingly well!, I was gutted when I got that puncture, yes: I realise nobody is ever delighted to have a puncture on their bike, BUT; it was cold and I was expecting icy fingers because I had never had to repair a tubeless tyre before, I fully expected to end up having to put the spare tube I was carrying into the wheel, I watched a very quick you tube tutorial on my phone, it looked too easy to believe, put a wee Dod of gum on a needle insert needle into the puncture hole pull out the needle leaving behind some gum sorted!? No way I thought?! But yes; this actually worked and has lasted even until now well over six months on, Then recently I got a puncture on the side wall of the front tire, I thought no problem this is easy now that I know how! I was uncertain as to why it didn’t work with the Nukeproof gum needle kit this time? perhaps due to the puncture being on the sidewall? I thought; Or maybe it was the size of the puncture Perhaps? maybe it was due to it being a slow puncture, it had been allowed to deflate I would blow it up it would deflate overnight, three times I done this before I attempted repairing it? the gum & needle never worked this time, it was back to you tube tutorials (a very apt name no pun intended but I like it) a yet further learning curve Perhaps on reflection in the short term I may well have got away with just putting some glue and a patch on the outside of the tire? I decided to take the tire of and patch it on the inside, from what I had viewed and read on line this meant that I would have to replace some sealant liquid, this was a revelation to me that tubeless tyres have sealant floating about inside them, this sealant that looks like watery wood glue needs replaced every so often I found out. (I now suspect the slow side wall leak was actually due to the sealant needing renewed not a puncture) Sure, enough when I removed one side of the tyre rim it appeared there was no sealant left, I placed a patch on the inside anyway to be sure, then cycled my old cyclocross bike into Falkirk, the trusty old greyhound as my friend Jen had christened it, this bike felt super light and fast compared to the daunder, it actually felt too flighty, once in Falkirk I discovered all the cycling shops were shut down! My nearest cycling shop was now east of Polmont in Linlithgow not west in Falkirk,

No problem I thought; it’s a pleasant cycle into Linlithgow, I went the next day a pleasant cycle along the canal and bought some sealant, the shop assistant was very helpful; he said any problems with getting it blown up just come back in? I have a good track pump at home and initially didn’t understand the shop assistants’ statement about problems blowing up the tyre? I was in a happy place the bike repair was progressing I was enjoying the day out on the trusty greyhound, opting for a touristy circular rout I went round by the palace and loch then over a back road called the flints to Kinneil country park, then home pleasant wee outing

The issue the bike shop assistant tried to warn me about? Was; that with a tubeless tire the initial blow up requires a large volume high pressure surge of air, my blow jo track pump although a great pump wasn’t up to this task! Unfortunately, as hard as I tried pumping, I could not get the rim to seal, next problem! the cycle shop was shut that day, I had gone through to it in my pal’s car, holding a tire that occasionally seeped sealant over my trousers, I had to hold it upright (away from the valve) on the car journey through! Same on the second day (a different friends’ car) when thankfully the shop was open and - bang! I could hear the slap as the high-pressure volume of air forced the rim to seal against the tire wall, (a beautiful sound to my ears) you then need to swirl the tyre around and hey presto at last job done!

Lessons to be learned (you would think) Granted; I would have most likely? been much quicker putting an inner tube in, I need to learn how that will go should I require this in some backwater area miles from a high pressure/volume pump, I should also have put the remaining half tub of sealant into the back tyre at the same time? I had half the tub left, I should have done both tires at the same time, Deal with that later! I had stupidly thought, it should be engraved on my headstone! That or I will get round to fixing that

I put the daunder in the garage making a list of things I need to buy and jobs I need to do before a return to the NCN1 can get restarted, I had made a purchase of a house in Bulgaria! This required me to go there and sign-up paperwork open bank accounts etc, much more on this subject on the blog I keep for my journeys to Bulgaria – http://kenjopolmontski.blogspot.com/2021/09/newcastle-holland-germany.html Once I eventually got home from Bulgaria, I had a huge backlog of paperwork to sort out. I had changed over all my finances to ethical sustainable banking more on that on a different blog still to be updated It was by then over a month since I last took the daunder out! I went to go on a cycle and prepare the bike for the next section of the cycle route, but hey presta! This time the back tire was flat (the one I should have put the remaining sealant in) I blew it up it was a slow puncture I got a trip into town and back on it but had to blow it up three times, this did not help things! when I soaped it; the side wall on either side of the tube had a few small leaks

This time; I knew the sealant would need to be put in, I put some small patches on the side wall leaks, this time! I didn’t even bother trying to add the sealant myself, I took the wheel on the bus to a different bike shop, (the Falkirk one was back open) this shops pump was nowhere near as good as the other bike shops, I had to help the shop assistant with the pumping as it was a sort of pump and accumulator barrel set up! I’ve since made a purchase of a presta valve adapter for petrol station hoses, an adaptor of presta to schraeder valves! Here’s hoping the next time I can use that? there’s definitely benefits to the tubeless set up, perhaps not on a round world trip?

My Strava hotspots

Smart watch = dumb owner

The latest saying in the outdoors community is? If it’s not on strava it didn’t happen some folk go absolutely nuts for it, analysing data of all sorts by people all around the world, of course with every social media there is also others that like to distance themselves from putting up any sort of personal information, I enjoy being part of the strava community but can also see why others wouldn’t What is Strava? it’s an American internet service for tracking human exercise which incorporates social network features. It is mostly used for cycling and running using GPS data. Strava uses a freemium model with some features only available in the paid subscription plan, I had only been using the free version for years but last year I paid for a plan to gain some features

personally, I love it I think it’s great to see friend’s activities it almost makes me share in their adventures, I like to think they get to share in mine; this is friends from all over the world that I can see, from the boys in new Zealand’s cycling an Australian mate runs Kim’s cycling in Germany and graces runs in New York, Sheila and bobs hikes around the highlands and islands then of course there’s my friends from all over the UK also, The watch is really simple to use, once you learn what the five buttons around the face are for then use it often it’s the regular use for me that is key, if I don’t do activities then I forget which buttons do which functions, I have became really good with it now for activities anyway; it’s a simple press of a button then two others to scroll through to choose an activity, then push the start button and I am off; the watch then logs all the data of my activities then pressing stop at the end of that activity, the data is immediately uploaded via Bluetooth to my phone which updates it to strava, I think this is magical! this instant uploading onto the internet for all my friends worldwide that are on strava to see, seconds after getting out the water off the bike or down from a hill hike There are 19 activities to choose from on my Garmin smart watch, everything from hike bike run swim climb row etc, I recently had a cracking day out swimming at lovely loch Ard, which of course I logged the open water swimming on strava, along with some photos that day something I rarely do on strava, I also got a shot off Sheila’s stand up paddle board that day, this was my first time on a SUP! making it the second last activity on my smart watch that I had not previously used, this now leaves only golf as an activity on the watch I have yet to do, I have absolutely no intentions of playing golf just to tick this box though as I’ve no time for that sport, I was glad to tick the activity box using Sheila’s SUP, I’ve been wanting to give that a go for years, I loved it and felt proud of how well I done for it being my first time on one, I also had the chance to try my new snorkel mask out that day, it was really good I am looking forward to giving it a sea trial

There was a bit of a world-wide craze of running every street of cities and towns, I liked the sound of this and decided I wanted to do it for my home town, which I duly set out and done logging every run over a few weeks round all the streets of my village, I also went on to do all the streets in the town of Brae on Shetland where I was working. There are times I feel I would like to expand that running experiment to be all the streets of my area of the town of Falkirk! This is only really an outside possibly of ever being done as I prefer running trails these days, in order for me to see all these street runs done over consecutive days, I had to upgrade my strava to include a feature called a heat map. This clever tool enables you to put all your activities on one map with the red line getting brighter the more times you do an activity around a certain loop, if you do the same route often enough it goes white hot

If you zoom in on an area of your activities heat map, you get a great view of all the streets it’s like looking down on a city all brightly lit up at night, I love seeing my activities in this way it makes my year’s subscription payment worthwhile, that along with a way of saying thanks for all those years I used the excellent strava App for free, Another feature I love is when you zoom out of the street sized picture and choose to show all activities, zoom it out to for example the size of a country like Ireland- I can see my whole red line of my cycle route down the length of Ireland, it`s the same red line for the Hebway and now my NCN1 route etc, its such a shame this app wasn’t around when I done my LEJOG C2C and other pre App days cycle tours, when you zoom out even further to Europe wide it shows dots of how many activities in a given area or country. For example, there’s a red dot in the area of the alps at the Swiss Italian French border, showing six ski holidays taken in that area; if I zoomed in on that dot I would see them in better detail, but it’s great for me to see my numbers of activities spread right across Europe skiing cycling and running, my red dots when zoomed out this far around Scotland show about six hundred activities dots, this includes my hillwalking and loch swimming activities; this pleases me to know that these activities are all digitally stored,

my big red dot over Shetland shows two hundred and fourteen activities, I find it really cool to zoom in on the Shetland map, it shows red lines all over the archipelago like veins on a body builder’s arms, with all my cycling and trig point bagging fun around the islands there are other features to the smart watch that I have yet to use for example- the navigation App? its possible for me to download a route to my watch which allows you to navigate trails using the watches GPS like a map and compass! I really need to get around to learning how to use this tool for future adventure plans; like the cape wrath ultra and completing my Munro round, I also never look at the data for performance enhancing purposes data from the heart rate monitor pace, steps, cadence, ascent. You can use that stuff to monitor your training progress but I never do. I feel certain that in the future these things will monitor your health and tell you when your ill or lack something nutritionally? And then I will be running along the road arguing with it!

Getting kudos! I love getting kudos; this is when a friend views your activity on strava and gives you the thumbs up, I will apologise to my friends on here that regularly give me kudos, because I am very haphazard at looking at other peoples activities and rarely give kudos, I apologise for this getting lots of praise while hardly giving any is a bit unfair, however thank you anyone who has read this and also gives me kudos I truly do appreciate it,

kingdom to Kelpies

A hearty breakfast from the organic farm cafe at the pillars of hercules, was followed with a few purchases from the well stoked shop and nursery garden, the weather was looking great for setting off cycling,

We had taken a walk around the camp site the previous evening, we got chatting to a group who had hired the whole of one section of the campsite for their friends and family, which they were thoroughly enjoying due to not being able to go abroad this was their first time doing this, then we had a walk further up the road and briefly into the woods before it got too dark, when looking at the map(it was my cycle map) it looked feasible for Sheila to be ale to drive this road all the way to loch Leven our destination the next day, this turned out to be wrong! only a couple of mile down this road Sheila had to turn her wee caddy van around as it was closed to cars, there was a large locked gate, this of course was great for me on the daunder but it meant a longer drive for Sheila,

The closed to traffic road was Dreamsville; I was wishing it would be like that all the way to the Loch, it wasn’t it re-joined a B road which then briefly joined onto an A road, at this junction I came across a trig point in among some bushes, I was a bit taken aback by this; as there is very few of these anywhere that are just so close to a busy main road at low level near houses. Also, surprisingly to me It was in good condition, I couldn’t resist a hark back to my Shetland trig point adventure and hopped on for a photo, taking a note of its number and put it on my trigpointing.uk web page

At this junction it should really have only been a brief cycle on this busy A road for me, then it would have been a traffic free path down to the loch shore beside Leven`s larder café and country store, but alas Sheila was near the town of Milnathort in our confused discussion of where to park near the loch for our swim, I had said there was a carpark near Burleigh castle, I only new of this car park from my previous bivvy at the Loch side, as it was where I had come of the shore side cycle path joining the main road from this car park, it was actually half a mile from the castle! No drama though Sheila had all the swimming stuff ready, we even turned this added walk into a giggle as Sheila had her first backie on a cycle since her childhood,

Once at the waters edge on a small stretch of beach, I got changed into my full wet suit I was at that time a bit of a wimp with the outdoors swimming, mostly only going in with full wet suit booties and gloves on, I fully intend to change this but that’s for another time, on this occasion I was glad of the wet suit mostly due to all the algae that was floating about! I made sure I didn’t swallow any water and thoroughly rinsed and cleaned my wet stuff later, making sure I didn’t pollute other bodies of water the next time I wore that wet suit, we both thoroughly enjoyed our brief swim but decided if we were ever to swim in this loch again, we would choose one of the numerous other good locations around this large loch to go in where there would be less algae.

Yet again I had the better deal on our departure, Sheila had the uphill march to the car park, while I was going to cycle around the stunning walkway through the nature reserve on traffic free pleasant paths, all the way right into the heart of the town of Kinross, where me and Sheila met again at the loch Leven brewery, we arrived at the brewery at the exact same time! All perfect timing as it started to rain heavy as we went inside, the beers were delicious but sadly they didn’t do food (we were hoping to have lunch there) I had not eaten since breakfast and had a long way to go, two pints and a couple of biscuit bars out my pack would have to fuel me home,

The rain stopped Sheila went of to explore the town then head home in her wee van, I got back on the NCN1 route out of town, this was a long winding up hill section of road which taken me by surprise as this whole area is reasonably flat! The stretch of road south that the route took seemed to rise for miles! one of those roads you think is going to level out around every next bend only to see it continue going up for an age, I past a couple that were doing a cycle touring weekend break, they were also complaining about the never ending steep gradient, I chatted with them at three separate stops to catch my breath take off a layer and enjoy the view, I could see loch Leven low in the distance at the top, it never ceases to amaze me when I look back at where I’ve came from when spending an afternoon cycling, the loch looked so far away now it was a wow; I’ve done well moment the photos never do this justice,

Cycling past loch glow through the trees the road then stated to descend into small towns passing by Scotland’s bus museum! The route then got back to being a proper cycle path on the outskirts of Dunfermline, the rain had come back with a vengeance when I got to Dunfermline, it was chucking it down! I stupidly never had my cape or a proper raincoat, I knew the jacket I had with me would wet out quickly, the time was half past five and I knew I was around twenty miles from home, my original plan was to follow cycle route one towards Edinburgh from here at Dunfermline, this would take me a slightly longer route towards my home, it would also have me weave in and out of paths roads and towns, I have cycled all around this area many times previously and know it well, I once even had a romantic cycling weekend to Dunfermline with a secret lover, it’s a great place I would like to do that again someday,

There is an excellent cycle path from Dunfermline to Alloa NCN route #764, this is all flat tarmac`d disused railway line, I knew if I took this route, I would get home much quicker; I could potentially even make it home and get to my village pub for grub before the kitchen shut? With the rain slashing down it was the quick way home for me, along the 764-cycle route to then cut of onto a B road, which took me down to the Forth estuary coast at one of the most? if not the most! picturesque villages in Scotland Culross, where I joined a good cycle path on part of the NCN route #76 to follow from there to the Kincardine bridge, once over the historic category A bridge the route goes into the farm roads of an area known as Skinflats, to then join the Forth and Clyde canal to cycle past the kelpies of Falkirk.

The kelpies are running walking and easy cycling distance to my home, I had done the journey from Dunfermline in an hour and a half, it made for a fitting ending to an absolute class weekend away, to make it back to my local pub in time to enjoy some vegan pasta and a few pints

dundee & the kingdom

It’s a steep downhill cycle from the train station to my home, it was glorious cycling the daunder down familiar sites, even the traffic lights and traffic at the roundabout where in my favour life was great, it had been nearly six months since I was last at home it felt like much longer! While I never get homesick, I do love being at home, which I am not even going to try and explain!

There are two local pubs in the village I live in, one is much more just a restaurant that will also sell you beers, the other is a traditional pub the black bull. Having been a regular at the bull for more than thirty years, I think its fair to say I’m what is known in Scotland as a well ken`t face in the bull! After I locked the daunder up in the garage her first night back in nearly a year, I readied myself for a stroll up to the bull, my eyes were wide when I opened my socks and pants drawer’s and looked in my cupboards, I had so many clothes to choose from it wasted pub time being indecisive about what to wear, for six months the only clothes choice I could make between my three T-shirts was which is the cleanest! Now I was faced with at least twenty shirts and five drawers of t shirts to choose from?

Once up at the bull while we were in theory supposed to be still social distancing two meters apart, the reality was if I wanted to chat to one of the other regulars, I would need to be closer than two meters due to my hearing being so poor, it was still the very early stages of coming out of lock down, this made for a surreal situation for me, it was disappointing when asking the usual questions, how are you doing? What have you been up to? The answer to this question for everyone else was simple! Doing fine not done anything it’s been lock down for the past six months, it was disheartening to me, on one hand to think that nobody would have even noticed I was away as they hadn’t been out! I also felt a tinge of guilt saying I have been having the most wonderful adventures, I never even bothered trying to tell those friends about my Shetland trig point adventures, I just told them I hadn’t been home for six months, I had packed in work and cycled home the slow way, this was fine and is always followed by the usual question so what’s next? People in general are really not much interested in what’s past, only truly interested in what’s now and in the future, this used to frustrate me as I wanted to share the adventure, it no longer does as I just say if your really interested there is a full blog about it all, then go on to discuss what’s next!

Scotland had held England to a goalless draw in the euros, this kept our dream alive to get through to the next round, while also stopping our English friends from ripping into us about their superiority, this event was marked with many`s a beer, thankfully before that game had even kicked off, I had got the daunder all packed up and ready to depart on the train the next morning to use my return ticket to do the remaining leg home of the NCN1, I was one very happy chappy on that train in the morning happy with the team’s performance, surprisingly feeling not hungover getting back out on the route with the daunder. Life was perfect

The train journey was wonderful not just for the dramatic scenery that journey always treats me with, but also the group chat on my mobile phone, was hilarious banter about the previous days game, I never want to be that person who sits on his phone as he passes over the forth rail bridge though! This made me intentionally pushed the phone aside as the train approached this iconic bridge, the journey went all to my plan; I was healthy happy and loving life feeling a lucky man as I left the train station,

It was midday as I cycled over a section of the NCN1 route that I hadn’t done before, all my previous cycling holidays heading north, had always went west coast or through the middle of Scotland, this time it was the east coast route over the river Tay on the mighty Tay road bridge, it was opened on the week I was born! Tay Road Bridge carries the A92 road across the Firth of Tay from Newport-on-Tay in Fife to Dundee, just downstream of the Tay Rail Bridge. At around 2,250 metres, it is one of the longest road bridges in Europe, this was my first time cycling over this bridge, there is no possible way of counting how many bridges I have walked ran or cycled over in my life, this one is fairly unique in that the pedestrian part is in the centre between the two roads, the Brooklyn bridge in new York is similar, but its thankfully rare on bridges for the footpath to be in the centre, I loved my cycle over it but! the scenery isn’t as good on a central pathway when there is a lot of traffic on either side of you, making a lot of noise and spoiling the view,

The next section of the cycle route along to Tayport was proper segregated from traffic cycle path brilliant! I was in my element full of the joys of life especially when the route took me through traffic free woodlands on the outskirts of Tayport, where I cycled through the middle of a caravan park, then along a rough track briefly to get into the nature reserve forest virtually all the way to Leuchars, there was lots of other cyclists enjoying the trails through the woods and along the coast as I cycled this wonderfull section, there’s a big beach as you exit the woods with a large visitors car park, lots and lots of signs saying no overnight parking which I felt was a shame surely this facility could be managed by someone for limited stays for a few vans or campers, I had spotted some cyclists in the wood had made hammock tents strung across a couple of trees discreetly which I felt was a great idea I would like to copy one day,

Once in Leuchars I stopped to take photos of the daunder in front of the military base, it used to be a big airbase but it’s a Scottish army base now, cycling along the bases perimeter fence I was reminiscing about going to the air show with my then young son, we took the train up to go and walked along here at this perimeter fence, all excited to go see the air display it was a great day out while these days I wouldn’t condone such a thing, when arriving at the road junction near the train station, yet again I smiled at a different memory of the previous occasion that I had cycled up to this station, that time had been a cycle to Leuchars from home, this was also a very happy memory I had cycled what is called the coast and castles north route from home to Leuchars via Saint Andrews with an overnight stay at Kilconquhar Castle Estate where my mate Brottsy and his wife Lorna at that time had a time share there, what a great wee holiday that was, every time I pass through that station on the train I look at the millennium post and remember that weekend happily,

Now I was cycling past the station to head for a lunch date at The Tavern at Strathkinness with Sheila, she had chosen this place to meet me for lunch having researched it before hand, she is a star she knows me so well it was the ideal lunch stop for me with a selection of real ales and a fantastic menu, in old style country pub surroundings, I loved it this was shaping up to be one of the best days out ever! Sheila had a few days off her work and wanted to get away in her wee van, we had decided on an overnight stay at a campsite called the pillars of Hercules on the outskirts of Falkland, this was my next cycling destination after our lunch where we would meet again,

It was surprisingly traffic free B roads passing some good scenery along the side of a river in places and through woods, I came across a memorial bench near a very green rock pool and small waterfall, The inscription on the seat read: - 'Loving memory of local environmentalist Nuri Sabit 1930-1997 Chairman of East Fife Baha'i Community

I am interested in all things environmental So I tried researching this further, couldn’t find out anything about this person’s environmental stuff just the religion stuff, which I was mostly ignorant of! Baha`i is a reasonably new religion, I am non spiritual anti-religious, thus I felt I could be forgiven my ignorance, my research found it to be a good one all for equality one world stuff harmony and equal rights to all, if it weren’t for the god part, I would have liked it more, if ever I feel the need to join a godly gang, then this would probably be the answer

Eventually I arrived in the town of Falkland and wow I was surprised, why had I never been here before? What an absolute gem of a town with an amazing amount of history. I now know why the district of fife calls itself the kingdom, the Stewart royal family (very distant relatives of our present-day monarch) had their palace here, right in the centre of town the grounds of which are well literally palatial! Unfortunately, I had no time to book a tour around the palace and grounds, yet again it was a promise to myself to return some day,

It was a pleasant cycle past a cricket ground where there was a game on, I had been surprised how popular cricket seems to be in fife, then through a forest track to come out near the main road at the pillars of Hercules organic farm and camp site, I loved it this was my first visit here they are very welcoming to cyclists here, even having a separate camping area for cyclists! and there is a millennium post at the café,

Sheila had a beer sitting at a table ready for my arrival, we had timed our visit to coincide with a pizza van being on site with some live music in a marquee, this was ideal a big well fed fire was at the centre of the marquee, the band played some Scottish classics with penny whistles a flute fiddle, double base, guitars and accordion, the pizzas were awesome my dairy free pizza even had flowers on it all organic local produce wood fired, the beers were black isle organic beers out of the campsite shop/café, it was a shame this ended so soon we could have sat in there all night,