Day 5
Today 29 km 232m Ferries: 2 Port Askaig>Oban Oban>Craignure
Tour to date: 304km 3265m Ferries: 5 Islands: 3
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| Shieling Campsite, Craignure Isle of Mull. Pot of Gold on Ardnamurchan! |
From Strava: A north easterly gale 💨 for our 25km yomp north east for lunchtime ferry from Port Askaig. Hard work! At least the ferry was running. 2 sporks and a Lidl food shop in Oban and back for evening ferry to Mull -Craignure. Steve has a slow puncture.
We had tied the tent to the fence yesterday at Port Mor campsite near Port Charlotte, the wind has dropped a little this morning. It's still a perishing cold north easterly, but the morning brew was appreciated! We only have 25km to ride to Port Askaig today, for the twice weekly lunchtime ferry back to Oban, whatever happens we cannot miss it!
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| Good morning campers from Port Mor campsite Port Charlotte |
We strike camp and leave by 9.15am. We should have hours of free time (ferry is 12.15) but the wind was just having a brief respite at breakfast and is back up to a good force 6 north easterly again, the perennial headwind!
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| The Strand, Uskentuie Isle of Islay |
We push past another gorgeous beach coming into Bridgend. I miss the turn and we go back and promptly end up on gravelly farm track for a couple of miles but come out again past Bridgend. That's the gnarly off road done for today.
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| Looking back to Port Charlotte |
We carry on hacking into that wind, the lay of the land is lumpier now riding into the relentless and brutal headwind (Steve's favourite word of the holiday) Did I mention the HEADWIND?! The 25km to Port Askaig had taken us exactly 2 hours, and it's not like we weren't trying! With a whoop and a swish down the switchback to the harbour we do still have time for a coffee at the Port Askaig Inn. Just one hour until the ferry sails. Fortunately we had no mechanicals as missing the twice weekly ferry to Oban was not an option. I may have already mentioned that as missing this ferry was not a minor inconvenience!!
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| Port Askaig Islay coffee stop waiting for ferry |
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| Are there more whiskies than just Jura? |
We board the 4 hour CalMac ferry#4 back to Oban and set sail at 12.15. There is an amber weather warning, and the captain is quite wary of his ability to dock at Colonsay to pick up passengers there. in the end with some skilful seamanship, they get lots of practice round these parts, we did pick up the Colonsay passengers and settled down to a recharging everything frenzy. I spent most of the crossing chatting to a lovely lady from Islay who was off for a mini tour of the Outer Hebrides staying in the hostels. We ate something for lunch, Cal Mac food is food, plenty of calories but not much more. Friendly staff though.
We dock at 16.15 and have exactly 2 hours until our ferry to Craignure. This does feel like "re-positioning day" but we will get a full day cycling tomorrow by avoiding an overnight in Oban. An impressive audax style "no faff" run into the ticket office for our Mull return tickets was our first stop.
Steve wants to go and see if the car is OK, I will not let him because if it's not OK it will wreck the rest of our holiday. There is an argument for more clothes from the car, but we don't really have anything in the car that will help. So we stop first at Mountain Warehouse. Very fortuitously, their merino base layers are about 75% off so we purchase a winter long sleeve one each, and two more sporks. Cos we snapped one spork and a second spork is free, we now have a spare. Sporks are us. We also purchased a gas canister for the stove. Then we headed to Lidl for a picnic dinner tonight and breakfast and lunch supplies for tomorrow. As ever it feels very strange being in civilisation, a choice of food is exciting but otherwise a loud interlude in our peaceful existence. It's not like Oban is a huge place but it feels it when you're living out in the wilds.
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| Back in Oban queuing for a different ferry, Craignure, Mull this time. |
We form an orderly queue of 2 bikes for ferry#5 Oban to Craignure at 18.10. We dock at 19.00 and hop on our bikes for a kilometre to the pre booked Shieling Campsite, left and left again. The threatening rain is holding off, and we have a prime sea view astro turf pitch, with midges as the wind has subsided. That's a first. Steve notices he has a soft tyre. He changes the inner tube, slightly annoyed the new inner tube on his old wheel wasn't swapped over with the new tyre, a really old perished inner tube is in there. We're relieved it didn't go on the race for the ferry on Islay.
We gathered up picnic stuff and retire to the mess tent as the heavens open, we were running anyway as the midges were out in force. It's very comfy with tables chairs (a television too but I hate television bursting the bubble on holiday), hobs, kettles, toasters, a fridge and freezer, games box, wood burner (purchase logs) and plug sockets. It seems Scottish camping doesn't mean holing up in your tent for days in bad weather or escaping midges any more. Very clever marketing to get you to stay and not abandon a holiday I suppose. The ablutions tent is next door so a luxurious hot shower each was enjoyed. These tiny man made micro towels do do the job but a proper towel is a bit of a dream. A hard fought game of scrabble and we head off to bed now wearing 5 layers in our sleeping bags. There's a pot of gold on the Ardnamurchan peninsular as the sun peeps through late evening after the rain. The re-positioning day has gone well.
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| Slow puncture repair Shieling Campsite Craignure |
Insta:
Bye bye #Islay hello #Mull. We worked our way back to #PortAskaig from #PortCharlottee this morning, only 25km but into the teeth of a north easterly gale. There were mutterings in the peloton. Still plenty of time for a coffee before the twice weekly Islay-Oban service, we could not afford to miss it. We’ve really seen much more of Islay and Jura this time, superb. 4 hours later we dock in Oban, a quick purchase of another spork, one between two isn’t enough Then Lidl for picnic supplies. We have 5 layers on in the queue the wind has been so cold today. Rain held off until tent pitched at Craignure on AstroTurf and the sunset resulted in a rainbow 🌈 and hence a pot of gold on #ardnamurchan #cycling #cycletouring #innerhebrides #PuffingPuffinsTour2019
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Great read - but just in case you may put people off going to Islay there are many more than 2 ferries a week to and from the island ... just not to Oban!
ReplyDeleteGood point, we know all about the multiple daily ferries from Kennacraig on Mull of Kintyre to Port Ellen and Port Askaig as we've used them. http://iheartcyclinguk.blogspot.com/2016/08/tour-decosse-day-2-islay-and-jura.html There is also a passenger ferry from Jura to Tayvallich on the mainland that takes bikes as well. Sorry if I made it sound as if Islay is hard to reach!
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