Holiday Recommendation - Highlands And Islands Adventures
www.handiadventures.co.uk
Highlands and islands adventures offer a wide range of adventure holidays in Scotland, and a number of these are mountain bike based. Last year Mark and Chris went on a week long adventure ride around the Cairngorm national park, carrying everything needed for the trip in trailers and wild camping at night. The holiday was called the Cairngorm experience, and is highly recommended by both Mark and Chris. More can be read about the trip here, and the photos can be seen in the club gallery.
This year highlands and Islands adventures have developed some new holidays with one eye catching trip called the Highland Camper experience.
This following is an exert from the Highland and Island adventures website which gives and overview of the holiday
• Day 1 Inverness and surrounding area
We will meet in Inverness, then make our way to Highland Campervans to collect your new home for the rest of your holiday. You’ll be given a tour of the campervan and then we’ll pack our gear and bikes into the van and head off to start the holiday with style! There are a number of fantastic trails that we can do on our first day, which will just whet your appetite for the rest of the trip.
• Day 2 Inverness to Torridon
After a comfortable night in the campervan (with heating) and a good breakfast we will set off on a ride around the Torridon area. These trails are truly hidden gems in a, largely, walkers’ paradise. The climbs are challenging, but enjoyable, offering beautiful views of the area, and the downhill… is something special. It’s fast and flowing and seems to go on forever. More than enough reward for the climbing! Tonight we will park up in the Applecross area.
• Day 3 Applecross to Plockton
Today will see us riding a stunning loop that will take in the Applecross peninsula with fantastic views over to the Isles of Rassay and Rona. On return to Applecross we will go into the very famous local pub for some of the best food you will taste all week. After dinner we will drive the short distance to our stop for the night, the village of Plockton.
• Day 4 Plockton to Skye
From Plockton, we’ll cross over the bridge to the Isle of Skye to tackle the challenging 50km loop from Sligachan. The route carves its way between the Cuillin mountains with a mouth-watering combination of technical climbs and hair-raising descents. We will cycle over some very rocky terrain, skirting round the foot of classic peaks such as Sgurr nan Gillean and Blà Bheinn. The last leg of our exhilarating journey takes us back along the coast to Sligachan and to our campervan for some rest and recuperation! If that sounds like too much, then there are plenty of other fabulous routes on Skye that we can choose from.
• Day 5 Rest day
Today is our well-earned rest day. We’ll travel through Armadale in the south of Skye, then catch the ferry over to Màllaig which lies at the end of the west Highland railway line. Here we will have time to relax and explore the white sandy beaches, mysterious lochs and perhaps spot some Highland wildlife. We’ll drive to Fort William and spend the night there, enjoying the local food and drink.
• Day 6 Laggan Wolftrax
After your rest, you’ll be ready to take on the myriad trails at Laggan Wolftrax. This is one of Scotland’s most exciting and challenging man-made trail centres that snakes through a lovely Scots pine forest. You can choose to ride the red or the black trail, depending on how fit and adventurous you’re feeling, and then relax in the café with a delicious hot chocolate! When we’re suitably worn out and well-fed we will head back to our campervan.
• Day 7 Laggan to the Cairngorms
Our last day will take us to Aviemore and the Cairngorms National Park, where you will be spoiled for choice of excellent mountain bike trails. We can head off into Rothiemurchus and enjoy a day of beautiful landscape, wildlife and a variety of fantastic trails.
Russ & Sues’ Euro Trip
Earlier this year Russ and Sue emabarked on a 2 week trip round Europe in thier restored VW camper van. Read all about it here
Derby to Skegness fund raising ride
Andy and Josh recently rode from Derby to Skegness raising funds for the ‘Help the heros’ charity which supports forcees who have been wounded and injured. The planned route was around 100 mile, but due to a road closure the final distance turned out to be 118 miles, with a respectable ride time of 5 hours 20 mins.
The lads raied £700 for Help the heros, so a big thankyou goes out to all who helped.
