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[2theburgs]

Sept 3 Benbecula to North Uist (74.4 km)

We let ourselves sleep in today since it was going to be a shorter ride. I know what you're thinking, 74 km is not much shorter than 86 km...this is true, although, still shorter, the original plan was for a 47 km day. Don't ask me how, but I wrote down the wrong distance plus we added a side detour. Anyway, back to sleeping in, we slept until 8:45 am, finally able to catch up and I felt much more human today...at least at the beginning of the day.

We set out into the wind and rain, and boy was it windy: 42 km/hr, thankfully about half or more of which would be a tail wind, the rest proved to be quite challenging. Being surrounded by the raw beauty of these islands helped distract my brain from my burning legs as I looked out into the vastness. Crashing waves, howling winds, misty mountains and too many sheep and cows to count. Today would be mostly about the journey. Being a Sunday, there was very little open, but oddly the gin distillery was open! We stopped by, and though I dare not taste anything with so few km under the belt, we did pick up a few tiny taster bottles. Rightly named, Downpour distillery was quite an eclectic place with more customers than I would expect on Sunday at 11:30 AM. We got going to stop at a local grocery store, the only one for miles and miles and the only one open on Sunday. We picked up some premade spaghetti, a few eggs for breaky and a beer and a small wine for later.

Our first big stop was at the first set of standing stones we would see. We ended up eating at the little hotel restaurant that lay on the same property. A good cup of coffee and a hot meal and two little dogs who gladly accepted pets and cuddles. We met a few locals who gave us the run of things, what to see and what to skip. We headed out to hike up to the very unsheltered hill where the stones were. Battered by the elements, and contending with puddle hopping we made it up. Really beautiful view despite the spraying misty rain and strong winds. I got out the good camera and snapped some photos while Ken took shelter behind one of these ancient stones. Onward for the next 25 km...sorry 45 km, oops.

More highland cows and stunning landscape to remind us of why we're here. Also helps that the worst traffic we would come across were the rogue sheep meandering on the sides of the road. But. The. Wind. The. Rain. What can you expect on islands off the North coast of Scotland? Embrace it, but heck, I wouldn't want to be traveling in reverse. North Uist became less and less inhabited the further we went. Kilometers would go by with just a small crofting home here and there. Still, something about this place is almost, mystical. It's an odd feeling to have your heart pounding as you're fighting a cross wind up a hill, and yet be oddly at peace and calm. As though there is nothing else in the world in this moment, except this place and this bike.

Another mile, mile and a half, I kept saying to myself. Reminiscing of our friend, Joris telling us this exact phrase as we hiked in Tobermory. We had a good laugh, and in that moment I had wished I had a Joris to blame for the error in distance. Alas, I could only blame myself, but no harm, each km was worth it. Ken of course was an excellent sport, he giggled in his Kenny laugh, saying he was darn glad I planned this trip, because if he had made this error, I would have been mad. Hahahaha! I'm ashamed to say he's probably right. What a guy though, can see me in all my hypocrisy and not rub it in. Just keep spinning. Just keep spinning (thank you Dori).

We did it, 74 km...only slightly more than planned (originally 47 km). Perhaps it was a moment of dislecsia? Ask my brother, I used to write in perfect mirror image. We landed in at our pod (a common accommodation out here, with all you would need in kind of hard walled yurt). Our grocery store premade spaghetti was awesome, and the wine even better.

No rest for these ol' legs. 86 km on deck tomorrow. If you don't hear from me, I opted for a night in a field snuggled up to a highland cow. This may well be my life now. Me and the cows. Go on without me Ken, God speed.

[2theburgs]

Sept 2 Vateray to Benebcula (86.27 km)

We woke up, reluctantly (at least for me) and made our way down for a full Scottish Breakfast at the #castlebayhotel. A huge meal, which was fitting for the day's work ahead. Ken tried blood pudding for the first time...I did not...the breakfast was reminiscent of the many breakfasts at the B&Bs in Ireland. The only thing missing was the resident dog, which was on the receiving end of my blood pudding each day. So today, it just stayed on my plate. The rest was delicious. We packed up our paniers and set out the door to actually go South to Vatersay, as this is where the Hebridean Way actually starts. Bit of a rough start, sleep deprived and within the first km we were making our way up a 16% grade hill...on hybrids...with 30 lbs of stuff attached to the bikes. It's in these moments where one wonders what one was thinking! Thankfully, what goes up must come down and we (cough cough, I) continued to suffer along making our way up and down until we got to the starting point. Thankfully, a kind local quickly stopped us as we sailed back the starting point marker, we turned around and got a starting point selfie. Cruising on Vatersay towards the Barra ferry proved to be fairly easy with a strong tail wind. We arrived at the ferry terminal and met two other cyclists who quickly asked us if we had tickets already. Apparently the ferry had already sold out. I had a brief moment of pride where I could tell Ken my Type A plan and book everything personality was paying off, because we sure did have ferry tickets. As it turned out...it was no problem for the other folks to get on the ferry. My pride quickly turned to shame, when not a single person was asked to show a ticket. Hm. Still, we did get to eat at the best restaurant on Barra last night because of my ridiculous planning (place fully booked), so..you win some you lose some. We landed on Eriskay to continue the journey North, stopping at a small shop for a coffee, and..after mustering up a lot of courage, asking about the elusive Eriskay Ponies and how to find them. As it turns out they are confined to the hills during summer to prevent them from eating a local flower. We didn't have the energy to go hiking for ponies, especially because we weren't even half way yet. We stopped at the AM Politician for lunch. An aptly named restaurant after the SS Politician, a cargo ship, wrecked here in 1941. It was en route to New Orleans and Jamaica. It had 300,000 Jamaican bank notes and 260,000 bottles of whisky. The restaurant had some relics from the wreck and took them out for us to see. We continued on crossing the causeway to South Uist. We stopped at the local museum to learn about life on the islands. It wasn't easy. They made beds out of driftwood, mattresses out of seaweed, and farmed peat moss to heat their homes in the winter. The museum also has the skeleton of a woman from AD 800, excavated during an archeological dig. Pressing on, we landed on Benbecula around 5:30 pm. We stayed in the home of a lovely Scottish couple and their dog, Maggie. We had dinner at a local restaurant. We've been quite impressed with the fact that dogs are as welcome as humans here. There were 3 dogs dining alongside their owners. Score point one for Scotland, I couldn't agree more with this rule. After snuggling every pup we could find, we headed home and called it a night.

[2theburgs]

Sept 1 Glasgow to Barra

We made it! Highlight of the day was certainly traveling on this 18 passenger plane and landing on Traigh Mhor (beach)! It is, apparently the only airport in the world that uses a tidal beach as the runway. As a result, all of the flight times are based on low tide. We were very fortunate to have a crystal clear day for this flight. We took a bus from the airport down to Castlebay where we would stay the night. We met up with Tony, from Barra bike hire to pick up our hybrid bikes and given them a little test ride before heading out tomorrow for the start of the bike adventure.

We were able to get an early check in and quickly made some instant coffee to try and zap ourselves away. It was only 1 pm, but neither of us were able to sleep much on the red eye from Toronto. Which, was actually a great flight, props to Air Transat, pretty comfy for eco class, food not bad for an airplane, and everything went smoothly...except for me leaving my tablet on the plane...I realized when we went through security to board the plane to Barra that it wasn't in my bag to remove "all laptops and tablets"....crumb....I filled out the lost item form on their website, here's hoping it gets turned in. I've commandeered Ken's tablet for now. In between flights, we took what we needed for the Hebrides and through it into a packable duffle and shipped our luggage to Newtonmore in the highlands! Let's hope this works out.

Back to Barra. The instant coffee didn't cut it, so the next logical step was to have a local beer, "The Corncrake" which is weird bird out here. We had a good lunch and succumbed to our slumber (with the help of the beer no doubt) and napped for two hours. This still, didn't totally cut it, but sleeping any longer may have risked another sleepless night (for Ken maybe...lol I'm sure I would have been fine). We walked around, checked out Kismul Castle from afar (currently closed for visiting due to renovations) and then went for our dinner reservation at Kismul Cafe.

Who would have thought some of the best Indian food we'd have would be found in a far corner of Scotland? It was sooo good. Uneventful evening, basically went back to the room and went to bed.

Let the games begin (tomorrow).

[2theburgs]

Aug 31 Pearson to Glasgow

We made it at least to Toronto! Let vacation begin!! I think I'm traumatized from traveling through Pearson during C19 - I was confident we would be running to the gate (even though I was a stickler for getting here exactly 3 hours before), but looks like Pearson has picked up it's game. We got through seamlessly from walking in to gate in 20 mins!

It was, of course, time for our customary "we made it to the gate beer"...so no, that is not a latte, it is in fact, beer in a paper cup!

We ordered a pizza for pre-dinner (because....we've learned our lesson not to rely on airline food).

Next post....we will be in Scotland!

[2theburgs]

Feb Mar Apr May ?!? Blurg

It's been too long since I've written...again! What is there to say! We moved! Praise God for his provision!! We're still in this pandemic, third wave, third lockdown. I'm fully vaccinated. Ken should be able to get first dose in May hopefully. Work has stabilized a bit, C19 has hit the community and hospitals hard now with the variants. Jasper has been up and down with his gut health but he seems to be on the up and up! He had lost some weight but we're back up by 3 lbs yay!

Thankful everyday for these two guys ❤️ #whatajasper

People all around struggling. Mentally, physically. It's brutal. I look forward to the day when I read this post to my grandkids and say, "yep we lived through that and we're stronger because of it!"

It's not forever. Just keep swimming ❤️ we can do this!

(who feels more like Nemo than Dori these days 😂)

[2theburgs]

Jan 10.21 In Review

Well, we’ve been in this pandemic now for almost 11 months! We are currently in lock down, which makes date night kind of hard.

Does doing a walk through our new house count? I’m really excited to move! And so grateful to God for providing for us. I love when things in life happen that can’t be explained any other way. Houses around here are selling for 100 K + over asking! It seemed like an impossible task to purchase a house in this market, but God made a way. It was so nice walking in to a fire going in the wood stove, it was 26 degrees!! Lovely! We’re getting packed up (well Ken has done most of it!)

Boxes provided by Viessmann!

We’ve been able to get out hiking with Jasper now that he isn’t throwing up in the car anymore! I forgot to snap a pic of us out at Hydrocut, but here’s the end result. He loves it!! It’s great to have him off leash and he’s doing better and better with recall.

Work has been insane! We are swabbing all staff once a week, and we are getting the vaccine for our residents next week which is amazing news! I end up pretty spent by the end of day, but each day is a new day. I didn’t hit all my goals this week - but it’s a work in progress.

This verse has been on my heart a lot this week:

Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you declares The Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future”

God does not intend for us to live in worry, crippling anxiety and fear. That’s not part of his plan! And even in the state of the world, when everything seems hopeless, when it seems like everything we know and hold dear is slipping away from us, God has a plan. A great plan. I know that for sure. Thank God!

Xo

Karen

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Instagram or Tumblr....I got rid of Instagram for a variety of reasons, but I'll admit, having a puppy does make miss it a little bit! I want the world to know how cute he is!!

...there it is. The reason I got rid of it. "I want the world to know how cute he is." What is that about? If you don't have it, you're blessed...or lying to yourself - That small, dark place...come on you know what I'm talking about. That dark little place that paints an unrealistic, and untrue, version of our lives. "#eatclean #strongisthenewsexy" or "here is my 5 yr old doing calculus" or "here's me and my husband so so in love on vacation on a beach without a care in the world". Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with any of these things, and I'm sure these were all very real moments; but...forget about the fact that my puppy has been sick with the same parasite that eventually took our last puppy's life. The 5 yr old doing calculus just whacked his brother with a hockey stick (on purpose) and now you're off to emerg. The husband and wife got in a big argument earlier about where their marriage is at. We post what we want people to see. I did, I do.

So tumblr it is. I should plug in here that I'm not hating on Instagram or Facebook, nor am I implying that it is intentionally used for the purpose of falsifying our lives to make ourselves feel better. I think it happens unintentionally, and then it can become intentional. Addictive. One more "like" maybe even a "love", a comment here or there.

So if you stumbler across my tumblr, I hope it blesses you. I hope you see truth. Raw truth. Weariness and joy, suffering and peace, and ultimately how Jesus is helping me move from weariness to joy and from restlessness to peace.

I'm going to try and post once a week. We will see, some weeks more, some less.

Xo

Karen

[2theburgs]

[2theburgs]

Okay it's been a while since I've posted anything and most of you have been caught up on the trip so I'm not going to catch up on here. Anyway! We get our puppy in less than 7 days now and clearly I'm excited!! Pics tomorrow hopedully!

[2theburgs]

Marmolada (Cross is at the summit)

[2theburgs]

Day 14: Marmolada

We had a great time in the evening at the hut. We met a couple from the Netherlands and swapped stories while eating our huge dinners. Everyone was pretty tired, so we went to bed around 9 pm.

In the morning, Sam (our guide for today and tomorrow) met us at the hut and we set out for Marmolada. This is the highest mountain in the Dolomites at around 11 000 ft. It was also used in the war where the men lived in tunnels and rooms cut out into the glacier. There was about 45 mins of approach to this one, not as strenuous as the one to Trincee. There was quite a bit of snow even at the base, so we ended up using crampons. The ferrata itself was really cool, and while it didn’t have the same slab section as Trincee, it had multiple steep sections that definitely had us huffing and puffing. I couldn’t really tell if I was noticing the altitude or not with my breathing because I’ve really never done anything like this before at a lower altitude so hard to know if it was altitude or just strenuous. Either way, it was still not too bad, even though it was steep you could always just lean back on the steel cable and rest for a minute.

At the top there is another hut, much more primitive than the one at the base (understandably). They actually helicopter the supplies into this one so it made sense that our soup was around 10 E each. Sam told us about some climbers who have actually free climbed the back side of Marmolada! The guy’s picture was on the wall.

We made our way to the glacier and started the descent down and across. I could tell this was riskier than it appeared because Sam got a lot more focused and a bit more serious. There are large crevasses in the ice that are super deep, if you fall down one, well it’s a problem. We were again all tethered together on one rope, but you understand that no guide wants to rescue a tourist out of a giant hole in the ice. At one point I stopped to take a picture and Sam actually asked me to take a few steps forward as I was standing on a snow bridge, which is just a bunch of snow between two sides of a crevasse.  He said he’s pretty sure they’re solid, but “you never know”. Great...I got my a** off that section pretty quickly and became a little more aware of my surroundings. You can tell in the picture it just doesn’t look that alarming, kind of looks like we’re just walking across snow, until you get close to a crevasse and then things change. I couldn’t take a picture of the crevasse because we couldn’t stop so close.

Once we we’re off the glacier,it was a pretty smooth descent back down. We stopped at the hut to have a beer with Sam and then rode down the sketchy lift again. Sam told they are actually no longer running this lift after September, because, “simply, it isn’t exactly safe”. Perfect...it’s safe until the end of September?? Haha! Oh well, we’ve been on worse things. We headed back to Canazei for the night, we will meet up with Sam tomorrow morning to go rock climbing.

[2theburgs]

Our mountain hut and the lift that took up there (arguably more unsettling than the via ferrata itself!)

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SHEEPIE!!!!!!!

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Remains from WW1

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Trincee Via Ferrata

[2theburgs]

Day 13: Trincee Via Ferrata

We got up fairly early this morning to meet our guide, Tom in Canazei to head to the Via Ferrata. Today we did Trincee Via Ferrata which is well known for a tricky slab section of climbing. It’s sort of a mix between rock climbing, rock scrambling and hiking. First we had to do the approach which is a bit over an hour of hiking up about 400 m. I was thinking to myself, shoot… the approach has me huffing and puffing, what the Ferrata going to be like!?

Fortunately, Tom stopped a couple of times along the way (and I was able to catch my breath) to tell us about the WWI history and point out different things on the opposite mountain, Marmolada which I will write about tomorrow.  The Via Ferratas were here even before WWI, but ended up being used to defend the Italian- Austrian border. In fact, The two Ferratas that we are hiking were Austrian territory up until after world war 2!

More soldiers died due to harsh conditions of the mountains than they did as a result of the war. In Trincee they drilled huge cave systems into the rock and in Marmolada they created the “Ice City” by drilling into the glacier and then lived in these areas for 3 years. Unfortunately, in the winter, it was obviously quite cold and many people died from carbon monoxide poisoning from lighting fires inside.

Anyway, back to the actual hike. After finishing the approach, we finally got to the base of the ferrata. There was a couple already clipping in so we just hung out for a few minutes chatting. It became clear quite quickly that she was unaware of what was required and was quite upset with her spouse/bf (HAHA!! Been there myself a time or two), though she probably should have done a bit of research before signing up. We all had a good laugh! (Not the couple, just Tom, Ken and I...don’t worry they were far enough away not to know). She unclipped, pulled the harness off, and started storming down the approach...

We made our way to the cable and clipped on (seeing as this was my idea there was definitely no turning back! And truthfully, it was not a hard grade). The first section was the tricky slab section. I asked Tom what he does when people can’t climb it, he said he just pulls them up from above! You are clipped onto a steel cable the whole time, so really you can just pull yourself up on that. It was incredibly cold initially though and I lost feeling pretty quickly in my one hand as I moved the carabiner up over the bolted sections. Tom advised us not to wear our gloves yet so we had enough grip for the rock. Eventually we both warmed up. Once we got on top of the slab, the views were crazy! Tom kept saying to us, “Imagine living up here for 3 years!”. What’s crazier is thinking about getting up here with nothing more than glorified twine.

We made our way up and down the different sections, we were all tethered together so in the sections where you aren’t clipped in, if one person falls, the other two can stabilize and hopefully, catch them. We reached a flat section and had lunch looking out over the mountains then headed down the descent tethered.

As we headed further down the valley we came across A LOT of sheep, their shepherd, and the herding dogs. It was really cool to watch the dog herd them around! I saw a small rusty metal thing on the ground and picked it up. Out came all this dust from within. It was a bullet casing. It was really rusty- Tom said it’s from WWI. I thought he was kidding, but he was serious- he said no one has been shooting guns up here since then! He said I could keep it..so it’s coming home with me!

We made it back down and took the very sketchy chairlift up to the base of the Marmolada Glacier where we would stay the night in the hut and head up Marmolada the next day with Tom’s friend and colleague, Sam.

[2theburgs]

Riding the Sellaronda