Day 7 - Fionnphort (Mull) to Glentrool

May 15, 2022

Sunday 15/05/2022

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I slept pretty well and dozed-off again this morning (after getting up in the night), being woken-up by Konrad who informed me that we needed to get a move on if we were to make the boat to Oban at 9.30. Before traversing the island, we first made the stop at the harbour at Fionnphort to take a picture of the Monastery on Iona. Unfortunately we couldn't have crammed that in too!

We re-traced some of yesterdays roads before hitting the slightly less challenging roads to Craignure. We are growing complacent with the views, but they really are stunning. We made good time and easily made it to the port for check-in. The boat took around an hour to get across. Quite a shock getting into Oban and seeing traffic and shops and people....

We filled-up with fuel and then popped into Lidl for some food and drink for tonight. We enjoyed the road down from Oban toward Campbeltown. Nice road surface and the ability to go a bit quicker on wider and more flowing roads (without loose gravel in the middle). We soon turned off onto the smaller roads though that led us to Claonaig and the boat to Arran.

We actually made it just in time for an early ferry which took us to Lochranza on Arran. The sun came out as we arrived and welcomed us to this lovely island - perhaps our favourite? We rode through the mountains to Brodick where we then took the smaller and gradually less mountainous roads across the island over to the West Coast.

All good riding with lots of cyclists also enjoying the same roads. I can see why this can be a Mecca for cyclists. We stopped for a coffee and some food in a cyclists cafe located in Lagg Inn - just what we needed after a breakfast of crisps and strawberries from Lidl. We carried on around the coast back to Brodick where we stopped to take in the views one final time before heading to the ferry port.

Brodick is a proper ferry terminal. The biggest we have seen for a while. The ferry port has a stunning setting - perhaps the nicest view I have seen from any port? The big ferry that took us over to Ardrossan was very busy with people returning to the mainland after a weekend enjoying Arran. If you live in Glasgow or surrounding area you could come here every weekend. Glad Konrad booked this one in advance. My understanding is that the ferries are subsidised to help tourism and life to thrive on these islands. When you think about the length of many of these crossings and how much cheaper they are than a bog-standard crossing from Dover to Calais, then you can see that they must be subsidised.

After filling-up with fuel again in Ardrossan, we made our way past Kilmarnock and Ayr into the final wilds of Galloway Forest Park down to our campsite in Glentrool (nice enough but a bit expensive). The road through the forest was empty and was ideal for some quick riding. The nice hill and forest views are still here despite us being back in Southern Scotland. Temperature now back up to a warm 17 - 20C!

We ate the food and drank the beer we bought in Oban and talked about some of our trip highlights, of which there were many. It's incredible to think that all these remote places are in Great Britain yet they are no less rugged than areas of the Faroe Islands. Didn't feel like anywhere else in the UK we have ever been to.

Tomorrow we are coming home and our hobo lives go back to a stable reality. Will be difficult to adjust I think.