Cycling Scotland: The Lowlands | Bicycle Touring UK

Welcome to a new episode where we cycle the last stretch of our bicycle tour through the UK. From our cozy stay in the Green Bothy we cycle north into Scotland. Through forests and empty meadows we make our way up to Edinburgh and even a little further to South Queensferry. Here we will prepare ourselves for our departure to a new destination. We start this week's episode Although with the freedom to roam and wild camping places galore, this first night we decided to head for another Bothy to have a relaxed night's sleep. Okay we decided to do it, to go for the Bothy. One of the big things is it saves us 10 kilometers tomorrow morning and that is super convenient because we have run out of our groceries and we need to get some peanut butter and some chocolate. Of course also healthy things are really important. We were sitting here, there were flies all over the place here which was really annoying. So in a Bothy we hopefully have a relaxed evening and a good night's sleep. It's a bit of a struggle though. Two kilometers here which saves us 10 kilometers in the morning but it's really overgrown. But then tomorrow an easier day. Now scouting a little bit up front to check if we can pass through. It's not like super obvious as you can see. It's a little bit of a puzzle. So we're bobbing and weaving between these trees here. I just went ahead. I saw a clear path going down but it gets into the ditch again here where the train used to go. Suddenly it gets really muddy. There are these thick, I think it's black alder and it just smothers everything. And there is a layer of mud that's where we really get lost in. So it's a no-go. Strange. Yeah that was so strange. It was like some alien hovercraft flying over. And then left and right and it was all over the place. Very strange. It's raining at the moment. Always fun to get out of the tent while it's raining. And we have to get to a town there. We can do some groceries but it's still almost 40 kilometers away. And there's no convenience stores or anything along the way. Not even a pub or something. Two pizza margarita please. Two ciders with that. That would be amazing. So we decided to go to the body this morning. But with a really big detour that we didn't want to make yesterday. So we're now here going to make some breakfast and coffee. A little bit improvised as we don't have a lot of ingredients. But yeah it's nice to have a place out of the wind, out of the rain. And what is really nice is that we got some trail magic. A little bit of extra chocolate in the breakfast. Always nice. This body is really amazing. I really wish we arrived yesterday. Let me give you a little bit of a tour. It's a little dark but look at it. The kitchen where they left two ciders. Everything we hoped for yesterday. Coffee. And did you tell about the lady who gave us the chocolate? Yeah amazing right? Yeah. So magic day already. So this body is fixed up by the friends of William Ramsbotten who died in a climbing accident. And his friends decided to fix up this body in his honor. So I feel it's really special. He must have been a special person. Weird in a way that because of he died we have a beautiful place to stay. But I think it's so special that his friends decided to do this in his honor. So there's a nice place to relax or eat some dinner for example. These wooden benches are made to sleep on. And a beautiful fireplace. I even found a toilet. For those of you that don't know, mostly you go to the forest, you dig a hole, then you do your thing, and then you cover it up again. So this is just luxury. Thank you so much. It's hot. the other road. It was way more easy. The gradient was so much more relaxed. But a lot of traffic. And then you have this inner dialogue. Should I take that road? Should I do it? And then this is the hard one. Oh, I'm not feeling it. And then you think, but why not? So we did it. And oh man, it was tough. The first bit so steep. But now, oh man, we're loving it. Sometimes I really wonder how we always manage to get ourselves in these kinds of situations. Proper hike-a-bike walking path. And you just have to conquer that inner voice when you do that. Man, it opens up for you. It's just great. After the retreat of the ice around 11,000 years ago, Britain was colonized first by boreal species and later by more temperate vegetation. Woodland cover then began to decline, largely due to early agriculture. In the 17th and 18th centuries, many of the remaining woods were heavily exploited for timber, charcoal, and timber. So I really have a love and hate relationship with these kinds of forests. They're not the most beautiful. It's a production forest. And always there's a lot of trees that are falling down. But the first night I've ever wild-camped in my life was in this type of forest together with Eric on the Cape Roth trail that we attempted but failed at. It was our first big hike trip and we did the John Muir trail instead, which was also really beautiful along the coast. But somehow, this always brings me back to that moment. Good memories, for sure. After a rebellion in 1745, major land uses occurred, including the rapid increase of commercial plantations, switching from a cattle base to a sheep based economy, and the development of shooting estates. By the 19th century, interest in native woods was in decline. This led to the loss of species, requiring larger unbroken blocks of native woodland, especially larger mammals and predators. That's tough. On the grass, this grass really pulls you back. Man. But it's Scotland though. Look at it. It's so empty, no trees, really barren. Man, super nice, quite intense. Nowadays, large afforestation takes place and has increased woodland cover from 5% to about 17%. And the last decade has seen native species rise rapidly. Good morning, everybody. We're here in a little patch of woods between Edinburgh and Queensferry. We're heading up to Queensferry where we have an Airbnb. We will stay there for about a week while we're still in the UK and accommodation is affordable. We're going to Iceland. It's quite expensive there. We can't afford that at this moment in time. There's the coast we're going to head up. It's really close for a coffee and we're going to make some breakfast. Thank you for following along on our journey through the UK. Consider giving this video your thumbs up and subscribe if you enjoy the channel. We hope to see you back in the next one where we'll head to a new destination. Wild, rugged, challenging and immensely beautiful, Iceland.