Today was always billed as a difficult day, aiming to cover 75 miles from Ballaculish to Crinan, with the idea to get here as early as possible to sample their acclaimed restaurant.
Fuelling ourselves with potentially the best breakfast spread so far we set off from our picturesque lodge trying to find a newly built cycle path that we were told would take us the 35 miles to Oban. Despite only travelling 500m from our hotel, I am sure it will not surprise most of you that we got lost. This newly laid cycle path didn't seem to exist, not a good start to the day.
Eventually we found a path, and cycled on it for all 2 minutes. Whilst we are getting fitter, we certainly did not cover the intended 35 miles in that time, 1050mph may be slightly beyond us mere mortals. In that two minutes we did have an incident with Caroline taking a tumble on a slippery bridge. Thankfully Dr. Graham (Is) was on hand with her first aid to bandage her up as good as new.
Pushing on hard on the main roads, we battled against yet more wind, rain, hills and nutter drivers. Eventually what seemed like an age we found the fun bus in Connel and stopped for a pub lunch.
With a round of sandwiches under our belt we set off on our afternoon leg. Some brutally long and steep hills kept our heart rate high but the views from the summit were fantastic and well worth the pant and sweat. With views so picturesque it felt a shame to descend so quickly, so we stopped half way down for a much deserved afternoon tea with scones.
Apologies for the lack of pictures today but I'll post them all tomorrow, everyone is waiting for my order!
Finally, the results of our daily dinner competitions are in, with Ed winning 'Cyclist of the Day' after an impressive performance on the road. Jess and Lydia came joint first place in the 'Animal Noises' competition where they had to mimic the noise of a cockerel!
When first reading that you got lost my first thought was that some idiot had let Julian take the lead. I'm thinking back to getting off the Eurostar and despite being in a convoy Julian managed on the first roundabout to take the exit to Paris! Emma and I study the route map in the shop most mornings and we both thought that today would be the toughest so far. So to empathise we then had a hot chocolate and two Boost bars each. We really felt then that we knew what kind of hell you're all going through. Can I suggest a Donkey for tomorrow? Hope the restaurant lived up to expectations and the sore limbs are rested ready for what tomorrow brings.
ReplyDeleteLook forward to your nightly bulletin and cant wait for tomorrows edition. I can now put away my worry pills. As John Wayne would say "Get orf your horse and drink your malt" Can't type with an American accent! Good night "BLAZING SADDLES"!!!
ReplyDeleteHi Gang, Hope your all okay and ur bums arent hurting to much. Loving the fact that i can read how u lot r getting on and fred i love the pictures, tell Jess and Lyd to keep up the good work with the animal noises, i will want to hear them when u bk home!! haha!! keep going ur all doing so well!
ReplyDeleteloads love Deeds x
HI GANG, We are all following your daily journey, each bulletin makes riveting news in one way or another, all good. Good luck on the next leg and keep those lorries in order. PS Alfie plods round the field with me with the same determination to succeed that you all have. 169
ReplyDeletewell guys you lot are just AMAZING, but i am so disappointed there is no sign of anyone having eaten the deep fried mars bar that scotland is so famous for.
ReplyDeletei do hope the saddle sores are staying at bay and i hope the weather changes for the better soon.
love reading this blog makes my day. love to you all from Pauntie and the gang xxxx