I've ridden the Fort Augustus road in both directions, it's a lot more fun going down! 

When I was screaming down that hill, one of my thoughts ( besides wheeeeee!) was that I wouldn't want to ride up it!

Esp liked the photo of the hill out of Tarbet, Ron.

That was another brutal hill. Strava said it was the third biggest continuous climb I'd ever done. The Aussie who ran the coffee wagon in Tarbert was a cyclist. He told me to remember to look back and not just grind up the hill. Good advice.

As I did The Hebridean Way from north to south I rode that Clisham hill toward Tarbert. It was a beast! I was banjaxed pulling in to the servo at Tarbert. I bought a pie there and asked if there was a campsite near by. The lady answered no but, pointing across the road, you can camp on our croft. Thus it came to pass Ian had the best, exclusive campsite with stunning views. A couple staying at a cottage nearby gave me cake as well. Happy days!

If that Clisham hill is the one I'm thinking of (leaving Loch Shipoirt) that would have been a beast indeed to climb. It was so windy when we descended it we had to creep down for fear of being blown off the road. That was a lovely campsite you lucked upon!

 After my daughter and her partner took the bus from Ullapool to head home I took a day off (and bought a toque and warmer socks!) then headed south to join the North Coast 500, circling back to Ullapool four days later. I did not ride over the famous Bealach na Ba, having previously decided it was beyond my fitness level. When I arrived in Shieldag for a coffee, I met four young, fit road cyclists who had come over. They told me I hadn't missed anything as it was torrential rain, cold, and zero visibility at the top. I also had my one and only encounter with the infamous Scottish midges at the campground in Torridon. Luckily, I had a head net with me, but the beasties did manage to chew a ring around my legs, just below my knees in the tiny space between my knickers and knee socks. Next time I will be more generous with the Smidge! From Ullapool, I headed north towards the tip of Scotland. I took a day off at at Achmelvich Beach, mainly because my inflatable pillow had sprung a leak in the night and I woke up with such a horrible sore neck I couldn't ride. At least my day off was at a campsite with nice facilities and a beautiful beach. And it was sunny. And when I returned home, my pillow was replaced under warranty.

Here are some photos from that section of the trip. 

1 Overlooking Loch Torridon. The bike looks freshly washed because the sun had come out after 2 hours of torrential rain.

2 Between Torridon and Laide, the scenery was amazingly similar to the Rocky Mountain foothills of southern Alberta

3 and 4 Lochs between Ullapool and Lochinver

FYI, taking the bikes on the  bus from Ullapool was easy. Scottish City Link provided a stretchy bag to cover the bike and the driver had saved half of the luggage bay for my daughter and her partner to put the bikes and panniers. As almost all the passengers are coming off the ferry from Stornoway, the bus also waits when the ferry is late, as ours was.

I drilled my old Tubus rack slightly to fit M6, but the Old Man Mountain one is a bit different. Am M6 bolt fits through, but the lower mounting point uses an additional spacer that is designed to increase the strength of the connection. Drilling it out would leave the metal of the spacer too thin, and I can't use an M6 spacer with a wider outside diameter as it wouldn't fit into the recess on the rack.

Luckily the thru axle system is really good. The upper mounts accepted M6 with no drilling and the whole process was really easy - although they don't offer a nice diagram for the order of nut, spacer, split spacer, bolt line Tubus has for all of their racks

...
I have decided to stick with the original Thorn fork and I just installed an Old Man Mountain Pizza rack which is attached to a special thru axle (lower mount isn't compatable with the M6 bolts that Thorn likes for rack mounts).
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I do not recall which rack it was, but one of my racks had bolt holes too small for M6 bolts.  Only took a few minutes to put a drill in a drill chuck and ream out the holes.

Thanks all for your input.

I have decided to stick with the original Thorn fork and I just installed an Old Man Mountain Pizza rack which is attached to a special thru axle (lower mount isn't compatable with the M6 bolts that Thorn likes for rack mounts).

Since my tyre side wall broke in Bulgaria, I started carrying a spare tyre which is the exact model as the ones I use - Mondial Evo 26 x 50mm. I have some Almotion 26 x 2.1inch tyres that came with my bike which would be lighter, but then I'd be with a less suitable tyre if one did need replacing.

I'll have a longer think about whether I need to change from 32h to 36h on the rear.

Update to my earlier post.  I found my Bike Buddy.  It's a Mark 3 version (don't know difference from Marks 1 and 2).  It dates from 2016 and as it's stainless steel it hasn't aged.  It comes with two sets of mounting pegs and two different spring band lengths - approx 10cm and 20 cm allowing for different bottle diameters to be carried.  It works on the basis of the cage being fixed to the bottle and the whole assembly slipping on and off the spring loaded location pegs screwed into the frame bosses.