Bicycling in Eigg in 2007

14 January, 2025 0 Comments

Eigg is such a small island that it is not a strenuous feat bicycling from one end of the island to the other. My son, Alan (8 yo) and I rented two bikes. The bike rental was located near the Galmisdale Bay Cafe & Bar, on the south side of the island, near the pier.

We cycled towards Kildonnan, taking a look at the old graveyard and church. We then carried on over the hill, to Cuagach, and then to both Laig Bay and the Singing Sands. Before this, we had biked to my great-grandfather’s croft at Galmisdale, the so-called “Gamekeeper’s Croft”, my ‘ancestral home’. I had booked a ‘full-body massage’ (nothing ‘naughty’, like a Thai massage) with ‘Tasha’ (who lived in the cottage). While getting the great massage, Alan played with Tasha’s daughter. I talk more about the Gamekeepers’ Croft, Tasha, and her daughter in this post.

Being a ‘bad father’, I challenged my 8-year-old son to a bike race – of course, leaving him behind! He was a bit unhappy about being ‘abandoned’. He turned up near the turn off to Kildonnan Farm with a scowl on his face. I had a bit of a bad conscience.

Things got worse when a giant horsefly stung him just above the eye. As I was trying to console him, I lifted him up on to a tractor trailer that happened to be parked at the crossroads. To make things worse, Colin Carr’s daughter (who worked at the Café) happened to be driving by in her car. She braked and came to a standstill. Getting out of the car she asked me irritably, “What are you doing here with my father’s trailer?” My seemingly innocent use of the trailer was thus put under suspicion! I explained that we were just having a rest, and she continued on her way.

Alan finally ‘recovered’, and we continued to Laig Bay (in fact, we stayed at Laig Farmhouse), not far from the Singing Sands!

I’m not sure that my ‘strict’ upbringing methods are pedagogically sound; however, my son, who is now in his 20s, has a keen interest in biking. He has cycled on more than one European trip (I lose track) – thus, far surpassing any biking skills I might have had.

I also took him on gruelling skiing trips to Ullevålsseter in the forests north of Oslo when he was a young boy. Those forests which were several kilometres uphill. Not having much knowledge of how to wax skis, I remember that the snow was glued to our skis. The temperature was around 0 degrees, making things even more arduous.

By the time we arrived at Ullevålsseter (a kind of café in the forest), we ordered Hungarian goulash, which I still think they serve to this day. I’m a bit vague on the details here, but Louis Armstrong visited the Ullevålsseter sports café in Nordmarka in 1959. I mention this here as it seems so unlikely that an American jazz legend would visit a sports café in the depths of the forest north of Oslo. The point I am trying to make however, is that my son, Alan, is now an resolute skier; so perhaps the ‘tough love’ paid off?