- Details
- Hits: 1493
It was dry again this morning but colder. We headed off on the NCN alongside the A82. To start with this was on the pavement but later, near the A828 there was a nice mixture of disused railway and forest tracks. Our first stop was on the beach near Castle Stalker, we had hoped to find the Castle Stalker tearoom which overlooks the castle but the cycle route bypasses it. There was a big rain shower over towards Morven and this blew across a chill wind so we moved on to the Creagan Inn for tea and scones. The NCN route continued to be good. After Connel we headed back up in to the hills which was great as we needed to warm up and we got to enjoy the exciting fast ride down in to Oban. We spent the afternoon getting tea, pies and food for the train ride home. For the first half of the journey there was no toilet on the train. After we joined the Fort William train there was a big queue! Got home at 22:00
43 miles today.
- Details
- Hits: 1336
The forecast was poor for today but it stayed dry while we were on the Tobermory to Klichoan ferry.
As we headed east a period of full wet occurred complete with hailstones and this spoilt the views for a while.
The rain passed over, the sun came out and we found a visitor centre and tea shop at Glen Beg for a bacon roll. We continued in sunshine, a new viewpoint at the top of every climb for another 10 miles to Salen (different Salen this time). There was a café in the store with home made sausage rolls. After this the hills got a bit less steep and we progressed to Strontian. The biggish shop there had scones, yum! Not far after Strontian the road climbs up away from the sea through Glen Tarbet, with the wind behind us we were making 15mph at times. The rain held of until we reached the ferry at Corran. We went in the Inn to check the menu then took the ferry over to Corran Ferry Bunkhouse... very swish.
45 miles today.
- Details
- Hits: 1530
The forecast was for rain and it wasn't wrong, steady wafts of the wet stuff were washing down like waves. The cash machines were still empty so we paid for our picnic by card and headed up the hill back along the coast to Salen. The road seemed quieter, maybe the tourists were staying indoors? Just as we approached Aros Mains we took a right and headed up the Aros Glen over the hill to Dervaig. It was becoming about ¾ wet when we arrived, there's a hotel but the menu is quite fancy but there's a café nearby at The Old Byre, marked as a museum on the map. They had great soup, tomato and lentil and even better, clootie dumpling with custard. The rain was heavy again as we headed north, the road zig zags like a mini Alp d'Huez but we made steady progress. Andy found it hard to stop on the descent in to Tobermory, salmon brake blocks might help, I might try them too. We were back at the hostel before three.
No photos today, it was too wet.
Only 29 miles today.
- Details
- Hits: 1507
Sunny again at breakfast and a slow start waiting for the ferry. Got to Craignure on Mull about half ten and headed south east. We had to stop a lot on the single track roads as they were so busy. After passing through Glen More we turned right and the B road was a bit quieter. We had first lunch looking out to Aird of Kinloch. The wind when it blew was cold but the sun was out most of the time.
There was a BCQ at Gruline then second lunch at Salen just after four. The single track to Tobermory was very busy and needed a lot of stops. Andy shopped an we had Mexican wraps for dinner.
50 miles today
- Details
- Hits: 8985
- Details
- Hits: 8067
We hadn't realised when we arranged this trip but the Ayr airshow was planned for the day we were going to Ayr. With a dangerous building at Ayr railway station meaning a limited service we re-routed to Gourock, a nice simple 35 min jaunt from Glasgow.
We headed down the coastal cycle route, this is sometimes on pavements making it slow going. We stopped at Nardini's in Largs and enjoyed their ice-cream. At Ardrossan we found that one of the ferries was off resulting in long queues of cars, luckily for us there was plenty of room for bikes so we got straight on the ferry for Brodick, Arran.
The island was much quieter, in fact I only realised how noisy the day had been when the noise stopped.
A picturesque climb up Glen Sannox took us to the lovely hostel at Lochranza.
