I completed this route in 3 days https://www.komoot.com/tour/259472158, although I was tempted to keep going down the coast for another day or two but my knees were gubbed at that point. The route was decent – I'd say it's probably about 70% gravel/dirt tracks, 20% road, and 10% rough terrain that I was glad to have front suspension for. There were also quite a few flights of stairs that I had to carry my bike up which wasn't ideal, but that's because a lot of this route tries to follow the proper hiking trail. Also warning to those attempting this route anytime soon – the top of Ben Bouie is closed due to forresting, I didn't find this out until climbing to the top and had to go back down and cycle round via the road…
Brand new to cycling and didn't do too much prep for this so many lessons learned along the way – such as a 12kg backpack might be too heavy for the shoulders!! Unfortunately I didn't get too many decent photos as it was pissing it down for most of the trip – I still enjoyed myself and I really want to stick with bikepacking and I'm already planning my next trip. It being across the central belt and quite populated meant there were few reasonable wildcamping spots along the route, but having done the route now I did manage to find a couple sneaky spots – if you fancy this route need help planning your stops then give me a shout!
by Hughbert-Jass
1 Comment
Sweet pictures! I’m planning on doing this route in the next few weeks, thanks for the tip about Ben Bouie. Any other tips would be gratefully received, you’re welcome to message me any spots etc!
Glad you enjoyed it, looking forward to it myself 😀