Monday 23 August 2010

Androssan again

Howdy
Sorry for the late blog, been a long day...
The day kinds started late, owing to the pitter-patter sound of the rain on my tent I really really didn't wanna get up.
Eventually I could resist no more and had to do it. Luckily the place I was at provided a covered area for campers to eat and cook out of the weather, so at least coffee and porridge making wasnt so much of a chore.
Packed the tent up in the pouring rain yet again and hot the road for a lazy 9:30.
Out of Oban in the pouring rain and up into the hills, now when I say pouring rain... I mean pouring rain, the kind of rain that falls in droplets the size of golf balls and about as heavy!
Up the Pass of Brander, a pretty glen flanked by massive thick set pine forest, with the rain beating down and the mist rising up it made for an eerie spectacle that could only be likened to being on location at the filming of the next Twilight movie.
Mid morning around Loch Awe, and feeling peckish I pulled in at one of the many 'random shop on the middle of nowhere' stores for a bite to eat, being the first time id had to use my bands in a few hours, I had a few epic minutes trying to get my hands to work to be able to get my money out, embarrassingly managed it in the end, and took my dodgy looking snack out into the rain, then to my utter horror my hands were too cold to open the damn thing! I could have cried at that point.
Then it struck me, that the bag it was packed in could be squeezed lightly and popped open like a paper bag...
Fail!
It's tough stuff that polyethylene!
Eventually after having a good look around to check no one was watching, I threw the offending article to the the floor and angrily stomped on it!
*pop* et voila! Tis open!
There I happily and somewhat smugly, sat in the rain and ate my tasty, if not a little miss shapen snack.
Around Loch fynne (not Loch awe as I said in previous post ) and into a cafe for a correctly shaped baked potato lunch! Much better!
By this time it had been raining at full force all day, making the scenery somewhat spectacular, all the sides of these steep sided valleys no road with heavy streams of water, that peat-stained flood water, that looks like the hills are leaking Theakstons Old Peculiar into the dark lochs, along the thick wooded Loch Eck, the thick pine forests pouring plumes of mist up into the skies...
Now it was my original plan to camp somewhere around here at the head of Loch Eck north of dunoon, but feeling fit I decided to carry on a bit, reaching Dunoon soon after, here again I must apologise..
I couldn't resist...
Just one more time...
So I did...
With the boat almost ready to leave, I one last time flashed my long since expired 8 Day Rover ticket at the ferry man, where in a 'doctor who' style moment he saw exactly what he wanted to see and with a big smile wave me past, "oan ye go laddie" shweeet!
Over the water into gourock and away again down the coast.. first through Largs then the beautifully named 'Fairlie' and finally onto my current location and home for tonight Androssan, which is where I bought the afore mentioned ferry ticket when I first left mainland to hop to Arran.
Feeling surprisingly fit and strong despite to day breaking my own personal best for a fully loaded touring bike, with today clocking 110.3 miles in just over 8 hours riding time.
Another strong day like that and I'll be back in England this time tomorrow, hope tomorrow goes as well as today (but preferably without the rain)
Till then..

Oh P.S. todays picture is of folk singing goddess Kate Rusby, two reasons
1. It was too wet to take any photos today.
2. I think she's beautiful.

Toodles!

T.

1 comment:

  1. Stay dry, dammit!

    (You lose points for unrelated photo)

    ReplyDelete