Like Chapter 0, this was first published as a Facebook post, but i’m redoing it here in blog format.
Day 1:
Arrived about 1pm with a long day ahead. 80 miles across some hills to the borders where i’d be staying over the weekend - I was planning on splitting it over two days.
Once i’d escaped the busy roads of Ayr, then passed through a network of tiny little villages, I was into this big sorta forest park. Very misty and atmospheric day, rain on the hills but not on me!
Views for miles when the clouds occasionally relented. It was totally quiet, I saw just a small handfull of people over 30 miles or so.
Nice smooth, winding road took me through bleak scenery. Beautiful in a strange, dark way.
A cyclist had warned me about the two big big hills coming up. Some good long climbing, but after the west coast, i’ve got to say the hills were a bit soft down here.
Selfie for Emma.
Big long descents got me to Glentrool by 5ish. Good progress!
The scenic route took me through a strange back-country with quaint rolling hills, nature reserves, the occasional unannounced waterfall.
Little villages with cool churches…
I reached Newton Stewart, the big waypoint for this route, with 50 miles behind me. Didn’t fancy stopping so I had a quick dinner on the move, as the hills opened up beneath me. Good cyclepaths around here.
I decided around sunset that i’d keep on going and do the whole ride in one. The roads in Dumfriesshire were beautifully quiet after dark, but there were some painful hills.
The view from the amazing place I stayed, that weekend.
Day 3
Off again Sunday evening, I trucked on through a country roads to Castle Douglas.
Didn’t get too far on Sunday! It was very tricky to find a place to wildcamp down here, but I got a great view of the stars once i’d settled down.
Day 4.
From Castle Douglas northwards, I took the main route back towards Ayr. This was much quicker, if a little less interesting than my mountain route down. It was a long and in places busy route, but satisfying to be eating through the miles. I stopped in a few little towns before reaching Troon, where I stayed that night.
Day 5
Not as good as the Aberdeen one.
Troon upwards, the cycle route took me through a string of strange little towns. Felt pretty suburban, and certainly the proximity with Glasgow was evident.
Along the coast, Scotland started looking more Scottish. Spectacular views across to Arran.
The cyclepath here was really nice. I made quick progress as I skirted to the west of Glasgow. Stopped for a while in Largs, a lovely friendly town.
A little ferry allowed me to bypass Glaswegian suburbia and get to the proper west coast! Mountains and lochs made for much nicer cycling.
The way ahead…
The way ahead…
On the other side, the place immedately felt different: slower, wilder. I just did a few smooth miles up along The Holy Loch before I found a place to camp.
The weather had been incredible today. I thought the west coast was rainy?
Sheltered under this mountain, I had a great spot to camp.
Day 6
Bustling but sparse suburbia gave way to winding roads following the banks of lochs, still far from isolated, but there’s much more space. The weather started to close in today.
Everyone was really friendly in this bit of the world. This little museum was really fascinating. A working forge, where they apparently also have folk music nights!
Loch Fyne.
I joined a big main road down into Inveraray. Wasn’t the most pleasant section, but the traffic were polite enough.
I didn’t take too many pictures in Inveraray, as it had started to rain pretty heavily. Nice place, but wet. Very wet.
I pushed on further, past a loooong long climb. The rain took all sorts of forms, from biting hail to a kind of hazy mist. Finally, I got to the north end of Loch Awe, with Kilchurn Castle nestled at the feet of big hills.
I was absolutely soaked, and probably not the most welcome sight for the proprietor of this quaint little B&B. But sometimes you need a dry bed to keep spirits up.
Day 7
The next day, I took as a bit of a rest day. Lots of cool places to visit! The first was Kilchurn Castle, which is a gloriously accessible state of ruin.
Foreground, this round this was at the top of the tower behind. It was blown off in a ferociously strong storm.
Looking down Loch Awe. All sorts of clan activity went on around here. They picked a nice picturesque place.
The view from the high towers. I can imagine being a guest in a castle like this, back in ye olde times, and being hugely impressed by the power conveyed by such a structure.
Second stop: Conan’s Kirk. Very eclectic, a bit crazy. Well worth a stop.
I love that quote at the bottom. Great way to say that the architect had no idea what he was doing.
Cruachan, the hollow mountain! I took a tour into the heart of the mountain, where huge hydro generators/pumps are hidden away. I believe it was the first pumped storage station. The tour was brilliant, too!
This is the queen commanding the station to produce electricity, using her magical rod. No shit.
Unfortunately I wasn’t allowed to take pictures inside the mountain. The huge cavern was really impressive! Here’s a little model of one of the four generator/pumps. They were rather large…
I took some little back roads and visited this place, where I learnt about how to smoke fish, and ate some expensive pate.
Bit of an adventure getting back to the main road. Yes, I did cycle across!
Did some offroading.
I got there too late to have a proper look around, but this is a fascinating old iron furnace.
This was meant to be a rest day, but I ended up doing 30 miles as I couldn’t find anywhere to camp, all the way along to Connel and up further north.
Finally, a spot to stay by the beach at Benderloch.
Day 8
This is Castle Stalker. You may recognise it from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
Getting to a really beautiful part of Scotland. I met far more outdoorsy types as I got closer to Fort William than I had before.
Dem hills.
The brute force approach to engineering gave me confidence in this bridge near Glencoe.
Coming up on Fort William, I had a choice: either take the busy main road, clogged with caravans and trucks, or hop across to the other side of Loch Linnhe and take a beautiful little singletrack road along the lochside.
On the other side of the loch, i’d have limited time to ride the 10miles stretch, so as to catch the last little passenger ferry across to Fort William. I had already been pushing hard that day, without many stops.
But damn, the other side was far prettier.
Good decision.
This little stretch was I think the most incredible 10 miles i’d done. So many waterfalls, butterflies, eagles. The sun came out. It was disgustingly picturesque.
(Not finished yet…)