DAY 17 - Craignure (Mull) to Strontian

Light rain and a very windy start to our ride north from Craignure to the small ferry landing at Fishnish.

The amber alert appears very real. We look across to the mainland. The gale force SW wind that is now developing is causing huge backward plumes of spray from the waterfalls that are running  down off the hills.  There is a miserable fellow with a beard at the kiosk who delights in serving us a coffee just as we are about to board. We later learn that we have caught the last ferry of the day off Mull – the storm has caused the closure of all ferries in the area.  We would not now be able to go on to Mallaig and across to Skye but would need to turn northeast and rejoin our original route up the lochs via Glencoe.

Leaving the ferry at Lochaline the wind plucks us from the ferry and lifts us to the top of the hill. This is followed by an exhilarating, 20 mile ride to Strontian with an 70+ mile an hour wind behind us.  There are no cars, no habitation and we realise we probably have no brains to be cycling in such conditions. But Lochaline is now well behind us. The landscape is sombre, wild and threatening, with falling branches on the narrow road.

Eventually we reach Strontian on the other ride of the Loch.  We are soaked, frozen and blinded by wind and rain but are fortunate to get the last remaining room at the Strontian Hotel. We go around the corner and thaw out in a café selling hot soup. Our bikes are stored in a back shed and, more importantly for Simon, there is a bath!

In the bar we meet George Fox, a very interesting local chap who shares some of the history of Strontian, the town that gave its name to the element Strontium. He very generously buys us a round and donates £10 each to our charities. At dinner there is power cut and we eat by candlelight. We hear that there is a tree down and the road from the Corran ferry is closed. We also learned that the wind had reached 110mph coming up Loch Sunart at some stage during the afternoon.

I ask a young lad at the bar whether it did anything else but rain in Scotland .

“Och Aye, occasionally” was the least reassuring reply.

Simon Sez,

Craignure to Strontian (26 mi)

It was raining when we left  the Isle of Mull Hotel & Spa. Kind of windy too – a gale around 70mph. We took the little ferry over to Lochaline and then had the most hair raising ride imaginable. 20 miles over a peninsula to Loch Sunart.  The wind was howling from the SW and lifted us up the mountain and along the flat. I recorded 24mph without pedalling and 38mph downhill, totally out of control, the brakes scarcely having any effect in the driving rain. This was a single track road with no traffic. Nobody was travelling in the gale except us.

When we got to the other side of the peninsula we turned west towards Strontian into the teeth of the gale, almost impossible to move. We holed up for the afternoon and night in the Strontian Hotel and were revived with a malt or two.


Living with John at very close quarters.

The man is seized with a restless energy and enthusiasm. Pretty ghastly but ok as long as you ignore it. The day starts at 07:00 (it was 6:30am or even 6:00am until I had words with him) when an awful gyrating alarm sets the room shaking and John erupts out of his bed like a volcano.  There’s a lot of crashing about and stuffing things into bags and then he is off with the computer to the nearest wifi point where he starts updating the blog. Wherever we go we are looking for connections – hifi, wifi, skyfi – whatever.

Of course, John is in his element on this trip – 6-8 hrs or so of physical endeavour per day with constant stops to take advantage of “photographic opportunities”

Breakfast, lunch and dinner are punctuated by constant playing with a portable telephone machine which incorporates a computer, camera and typewriter.  Then there is a much larger computer called a Netbook on which John is constantly typing. Then there is another camera, a big thing, a Canon G10 Powershot.  All three devices appear to have other devices and appendages. All very confusing but I suppose you need them if you have 5 separate email addresses as John has.  My own £15 Pay-As-You-Go telephone does the job quite nicely (as long as nobody calls me!)

Jenny has always said that John  is quite exhausting.  I now see what she means!    

I could murder a cigar.