Friday 8 June 2012

Miles: 74.6

We all opted for a later start and we met at the youth hostel because it was on the road we were taking to leave Inveraray, so we could see that it went up hill immediately.  After a bit of a slog A828 undulated for most of the day, climbing up and over from one loch to another with great views of the lochs and opposite banks that we invariably cycled around to.  The mountains came into view every so often when the mist dispersed.

The morning break was at Benderloch (gaelic name of Meanderloch!) where Graham decided to assemble his spare bike and the bottom bracket of his Ribble was causing problems.  We left at about the time we were scheduled to arrive for our lunch stop!

Many of us had overdressed for the next section as the sun came out.  After a short sharp 13% hill up, we all had to make room for excess clothing in our pockets or rolled down, up and around to get it out of the way.  We found several sections of a good cycled path, the Caledonian Way built by Sustrans mainly along the route of an old railway.

Lunch was at Leitir Mohr a track into a forest with a view over a loch.  We decided to continue on the cycle path which was advertised to be from Oban to Fort William, but it came to an end shortly after a bridge about 13 miles short of Fort William.  The A82 was busy at this point so we stopped to let all the traffic through then set off in 3 groups into the head wind to Fort William.  The “Chase the Wild Goose” hostel was 3 miles beyond Fort William at Neptunes Locks a series of 10 locks on the Caledonian Canal.  As the hostel was not open when we arrived, we were able to have a wander around the locks and make our phone calls home.  A fine end to the day.