Journey or destination: which is important?

Life’s a journey.  What an over-used cliché.  Of course everything is a journey, because, ultimately, our destination is a coffin.  This trip has been an excellent journey that I have truly enjoyed, and maybe I will talk about that once the trip has finished.  But today it was all about the destination. 

A few weeks ago, a British Airways Airbus A320 had an emergency: the engine cowling hadn’t been tightened up after routine maintenance, it ripped off during the early part of its flight, in doing so it shredded a fuel line, caused a fire and the plane was forced to do an emergency landing.  Something so small – the tightening of the cowling – caused something much bigger. 

Well today was my engine-cowling day.  I borrowed some excellent red Orleib saddle bags from my friend George.  Thank you George.  I hold no bad feelings for what comes next…    The saddle bags are clipped on to the pannier with little plastic clips, which are screwed onto the saddle bag itself.  Unfortunately, after 15 miles of riding this morning, one of those screws came lose, and fell out.  This isn’t a big deal.  Using some excellent ingenuity, I used some bolts that I had saved when I changed the cleats on my shoes a few days ago (I don’t know why I saved them, but I am glad I did) to fix the clip back to the saddle bag.  Job done, or so I had thought.  Unfortunately, when I got everything going again, when the saddle bag had come lose, the bottle of water that had been strapped to the top of it had also come lose – and gone through the rear wheel.  Cue broken wheel spoke.  This was not good.

When I bought the bike, I was originally going to buy some hand made wheels which could have had the spokes replaced easily.  I read a book (and watched the TV programme) about a guy called Mark Beaumont who holds the world record for cycling round the world, and he had lots of trouble with broken spokes, hence why I was going to get some wheels where the spokes could be replaced.  ‘Don’t bother’ said the man at the shop.  ‘Every bike shop in the country will have spokes for Mavic Aksium wheels’, which are the ones I bought.

No they don’t.

The spoke broke just when I got to Fort William.  I wheeled it to the local bike shop, but they just did mountain bikes which probably had spokes made out of RSJs or something.  They said all the shops around would be the same, but helpfully they gave me the numbers of a few to call.  I called Halfords in Inverness.  They don’t even sell wheels let alone spokes.  I spoke to someone somewhere, but his accent was so thick I wasn’t even sure I was speaking to a bike shop.  Eventually I spoke to someone in Inverness, where I was heading, who said they may be able to help.  They are open 9am tomorrow.

Fine, cycle to Inverness with a broken wheel (about 70 miles away) and get it fixed tomorrow.  Except when I tried riding it, the wheel was wobbling so much that it was rubbing on the rear brakes.  I thought better of it, went to Fort William station and asked for a ticket to Inverness; however they don’t go there.  Ok, off to the bus station.  Unfortunately they needed the bike to be disassembled and packed in a cardboard box.

This was not good, I had wasted a few hours now and options were running out.  Time for a bodge job.  First the brakes were loosened (now they hardly work, but at least I have the front brake) – all fixed.  Except now the wheel’s wobble is fouling the mudguard and pannier.  No problem – cable tie lash-up fixed that.  Finally a loose bit of broken spoke was threatening to go inside the wheel, which could cause a puncture – fixed that with gaffer tape.

When I rode it, it wasn’t exactly perfect, but it worked.  And so I completed today’s ride, which was the longest of this trip, with a broken spoke, no back brakes and a wheel wobble.  But I got to Inverness!  It was very hard work, as I was constantly listening for anything that didn’t sound right – all day.  And that is why today has been all about the destination, getting to Inverness, which meant I haven’t enjoyed the journey as much as I might have done.  However I am very pleased to have got here, and just a small bit proud of fixing my bike out of all sorts of bits and pieces – bits from old shoes, cable ties, gaffer tape…   Let’s just hope the bike shop can fix it tomorrow.  Maybe “life’s an adventure” is a bit more apt today.

Anyway, back to the ride, I left Ballachulish this morning and the weather was great.  I rode along Loch Leven and crossed Ballachulish Bridge which is made from Irn Bru girders.  

Cycling alongside the Loch should have been enjoyable but the road didn’t have cycle lanes and there were a few big lorries.  Eventually it got wider.

Through Fort William, and after the problems with the wheel, I came to the Caledonian Canal.  This is 62 miles long, with 29 locks, and building commenced in 1803 taking 20 years to construct.  It was designed to join a number of natural Lochs together to allow ships to cross Scotland without going around the top – a sort of mini Panama Canal.  Now it is used just for pleasure boats.

The weather and scenery was great, but I was more focussed on listening to my wobbling back wheel.

I came across this memorial to the commandos of WW2.  They didn’t fight here, but this is where they were trained.

I changed my route to go on the main A82 as it was a better surface, rather than my original plan which was to go on some scenic back roads.  Even then ride alongside Loch Lochy was great.

Next was the strangely named Loch Uanagan.

And finally, yes here it is, Loch Ness.

And my new friend.

Eventually into Inverness and my B&B.

It was a long and hard day today, but I’m glad the bike made it to Inverness and hope it can be fixed tomorrow.

Here’s a summary of the ride.

Tomorrow I am heading ‘into the wild’, to stay at The Crask Inn which is a pub/inn in the middle of nowhere.  They don’t have electricity, and therefore switch the generator off at 11pm.  I doubt they have an Internet connection so maybe no blog update tomorrow.  Then the plan is to finally get to John O’Groats on Wednesday.