After leaving our lodgings we headed to the motorway through Glasgow (where we had a slight mishap with the junctions and some of us saw a little more of the city than we were planning) and then over Erskine Bridge and up alongside Loch Lomond to Luss for a short get-off. The weather was being kind and some of us even removed the thermal linings from our bike gear – so much nicer than Tuesday!!
We were all very much looking forward to riding over Glencoe – there is something about that place that is very special, and it was somewhere we know Graham loved too. We rode over, stopped to take some photos, and then made our way to the Mountain Centre where we knew we’d get a decent lunch (we recommend their cakes too!). We did have to file past a couple of miles of stationery traffic after a caravan overturned and closed the road, a definite benefit of being on bikes – some cars had been there quite some time.
After Glencoe it was on to the Corran ferry and to Ardnamurchan Point. We knew we were in for some single track road but what we were faced with took some patience and skill… The main A road turned to single track not long after we got off the ferry, and when we reached our turning for Ardnamurchan we realised our journey was going to take a very long time! 25 miles of narrow single track road with passing places, gravel sprinkled over it at random, grass growing up the middle in places, and suicidal sheep darting about all over the place. We had to concentrate well! Thankfully the highland cows stayed put and there were no deer to contend with; a dog did try to eat Paul’s rear tyre though!
It might have been slow and difficult riding but we couldn’t argue with the scenery – absolutely stunning for miles and miles around. It’s a good job it was a clear day and not the same as the previous day, that would have been rather demoralising! By the time we got to the most westerly point of mainland Great Britain it was already 6pm – and we had to get back on that single track road to come back yet! We eventually made our lodgings at sometime after 8pm before heading straight to a curry house for a well deserved dinner!
Mileage so far – 1418.2 (236.8 today)
Compass points visited – 3/4
