Scotland Coast to Coast Day 3: Bealach na Ba & Applecross

21st September 2015

All too soon the next morning rolled around. Both me & Graeme were a bit apprehensive - today we'd be climbing Bealach na Ba - a winding, single track road that crosses the mountains of the Applecross Peninsula. At 10km in length, its the steepest and longest ascent of any road in the UK, and is the third highest road in Scotland. Neither of us had done as long a climb before, and I was having flashbacks to the Lecht wall of two days ago - what if it was worse than that?

Our B and B host added to our nerves by telling us horror stories of terrible weather conditions on the climb and other tales of woe. All we could do was wolf the breakfast, slurp the last of the tea & coffee and saddle up.

We set off, back down the road as far as Lochcarron, this time sans drunk driver in pickup. At Lochcarron, we turned off onto the A896 towards Applecross. There was a bit of a testing climb not long after, and, as we were going to be coming back this way later on, I decided to stash my panniers under a tree to save lugging them up the Bealach. Graeme opted to take the extra weight, probably for additional training benefits or something.

Warning sign. Note excessive panniers

Before long we reached the last junction before the Bealach na Ba began. There was an ominous sign warning of imminent dangers and other perils, so we took a photo and then set off. The climbing was gentle for the first couple of km, and I began to wonder what all the hype was about. But then, slowly things began to get steeper, as we got further up the valley. The craggy cliffs round about began to close in as the road climbed, and the low cloud threatened to block out the scenery below us.

You can't say we weren't warned!

The climb continued. Up ahead, I could see Graeme and his panniers making good headway. The long straight road eventually switched to the left, and I could see hairpins climbing into the clouds. We'd already decided that if either of us had to put our feet down, then the climb wouldn't count, and there was going to be zero tolerance of any attempts involving the walk of shame! I did discover that some of the passing places were wide enough to allow me to circle round for a while, which allowed a bit of break from the upwards grind. Luckily Graeme didn't notice, but hey, it wasn't like I put a foot down or anything!

Looking up the valley (this was taken on the way back down, as I couldn't stop for photos on the way up!

I may have done a few birlies in this passing place on the way up

Onwards and upwards! As I reached the start of the hairpins, I saw a rather large camper van coming down the road towards me! I had to keep going, and couldn't risk slowing up in case I had to stop for it. Luckily there was just room enough for me to squeeze past, and I could carry on to the top. The mist closed in before the summit, where I found Graeme waiting. We'd made it! But sadly there was no view and with the cold, damp mist swirling around, we pushed on down the other side, eager to get below the clouds and get some breakfast in at the Applecross Inn. The road surface on the way down was good, and with no traffic we were able to get a good pace up. The sun even came out as we dropped height, so we were quite warm as we dropped into Applecross.

Me approaching the summit through the mist - no panniers!

Dropping down towards Applecross - back into sunshine!

Outside the Applecross Inn - the egg rolls were great!

Tea, coffee and egg rolls were duly dispatched inside the Applecross Inn. I think its possible to stay here overnight, which would probably be a bad idea, with a whole bar full of ales and whiskies at your disposal! With a mid-afternoon train to catch, we didn't have much spare time to hang around, and all too soon, we were back on the bikes, retracing our route back over the mountains again. This time, I took frequent advantage of the many photo stop opportunities to get my breath back! Once again, Graeme was up ahead and didn't notice so all was good!

The return climb

Graeme adjusting his panniers at the top

The return climb didn't seem as steep as the way in (probably cos I kept stopping), but we still worked up a good sweat as we reached the top. The mist had lifted a bit, allowing good views down the Bealach back towards Lochcarron. I took a shot of Graeme as he dropped down the descent, and we both felt sorry for the one other biker coming up, walking...

Graeme descending the Bealach

Looking down the valley - no panniers!

The descent was great! Smooth surface and minimal traffic so we were able to fairly whizz all the way down to the start of the road. Up and over the smaller hill then, remembering to retrieve my  panniers, before raiding the garage in Lochcarron for recovery products and making the flattish run to Strathcarron station. We had a wee while to wait before the train, so got changed out of our cycling gear, which felt strange after being in it for the previous 3 days. Once aboard the train, we started consuming the gleaned recovery products and toasted our successful coast to coast attempt with a cheeky San Miguel or two. We'd had great weather on the whole, with little rain, great scenery, good food and fantastic day-long cycles! Marvellous altogether! As the train rolled towards Edinburgh, we were already plotting the next biking debacle!

Recovery starts here!

Love that profile!