Leth-Eilean
GEARASTAN - TOBAR MHOIRE DIST: 61miles
It's been a long winter. The sun deprivation was getting to me. Scotland's not the first place you might choose for guaranteed rays but if you get it, you get it good. May is always a good bet and it didn't disappoint. I started the Islands tour the day after Jeni and George's Ceilidh in West Kilbride to celebrate the new vets opening - a great time was had by all but it has to be said that young lassies cannae burl no more. The seventy year olds were throwing us 'round the hall!
I'm used to frequenting Queen street station via it's commuter train from Edinburgh on Friday's - on the last platform was another world of foreign backpackers and cyclists that I usually rush past. It's not platform nine and three quarters but you certainly know what Rowling was getting at. You start, fairly quickly to enter another world. The train slows after Dumbarton and you ramp up into the Highlands. The train was pretty quiet - outdoor types contemplating their routes with the thousand yard stare describing the mixture of concentration and exhaustion. Meditation as some people know it. I chatted to some Canadian graduates, we got through the mist and specks of snow at Rannoch moor and soon rolled in to the Fort.
The Youth hostel at Glen Nevis was busy but friendly and clean. I headed back to town and had a good dinner of mussels and a burger washed down with some IPA. Town was quiet. Back for a read and contemplating the day ahead.
You should never presume unless it's for the worse and you're doing it for psychological reasons - I woke up to the sun splitting the trees just poking up over Ben Nevis. I rolled out all the better for a Danish and coffee and headed down for the Corran Ferry - the first of 8 on my week tour. This took me over to the Ardnamurchan peninsula, a mecca for geologists, cyclists and people who like gales. The point is the most westerly on mainland Britain and the road, on this Monday morning is bright, full of fresh air and relatively car-free. The surface is also good but the terrain is up and down. It was a sixty mile hike from Ft William with a climb at the end over to Kilchoan for the ferry - slowly the landscape changes and from the short pass I can see Mull, Tiree, Coll, Skye as well as nearby Morvern. I suppose this is my reason for cycling - this perspective you get on life and the world - everything becomes more achievable and accessible. Scotland is tiny but it's a big, big country.
The legs held out and I managed to get the 15:15 to Tobermory, calling in en-route with my support man Calum down in Ayrshire The hostel at Tobermory is a wee cracker - right on the front and overlooking the bay. Shower, clean clothes, scampi supper on the pier, evening sun bouncing off the face. Pub for a relaxant......
