Tuesday July 8, 2014

We had a lovely breakfast at our B&B and headed to the train station at 8:00am.  We had reserved our bikes on the train and were surprised to discover another bike already on the train.  Franz a German touring cyclist who had also cycled LeJog was already on the train with his bike.  There was only room for two bikes!

We got Ralf’s bike in place and then manhandled mine to fit behind the seat near the luggage area.  The train guard came through and said you can’t leave that there.  We explained we had all reserved places for our bikes – yes he said there is room in the other carriage.  My bike then got moved to the other carriage.

The train journey was 4.5 hours long and we chatted to Franz for the majority of the journey.  He has done several long touring rides in Europe including one through Poland and into Russia.  The last three trips have been for a charity to raise money for children in institutions in Romania.

The train had to stop for 8 minutes in Invergordon.  This has to be one of the nicest railway stations in Scotland.

We got our bikes of the train in Inverness without incident and cycled to the car rental place to pick up our van.  We thought we were getting a small van but it ended up being quite a big van.  Both bikes fitted in with the panniers left on and room to spare.

It was a rather hair-raising drive.  Ralf tended to hug the white line on my side and often their was no shoulder or the kerb would drop away.  I mentioned to him a couple of times that he was over the white line, he commented better that way than being hit by the vehicle coming in the opposite direction.  The roads were rather narrow in places.  We took the A82 all the way to Fort William, we drove along Loch Ness – didn’t spot Nessie.

We went through Ben Nevis and  the Trossachs, along Loch Lomond, it was a beautiful drive with spectacular scenery.  We stopped as often as we could to take photos.

We stopped at this area to take a better photo of Ben Nevis and surrounding mountains and came across this monument for the Commandos who trained in this area.

It so much better by bike, you really feel the scenery. In a car I felt a little detached from it, very beautiful, but not really connected to my surroundings.

We arrived in Troon at about 7:30, we checked out the ferry terminal and I spoke to someone to see if we could get tickets for tomorrows crossing to Larne.  He didn’t think there would be a problem, but to arrive at 9:15a.m.  if possible.

We drove over to Ayr where we had to drop of the van and got something to eat.  We had already decided to sleep in the van, save some money and be at the car rental place as soon as it opened.  That way, we would be able to cycle the 12.5 ks back to Troon in plenty of time to get tickets and the ferry.

While we were rolling out our sleeping mats and sleeping bags, a security guard came around and asked us what we were doing.  We explained we were too late to drop the van of, and we needed to be back in Troon for the ferry, so were were going to sleep in the van.  “Na’e problem, we have had a problem with fly tipping (illegal dumping) I just had to check uuu oot – be careful g’neat”

We were settled in and asleep late (11:00)