Friday 15 May 2015

Mull of Kintyre🎶🎶

Inveraray was overcast when I left. I had a room to myself at the hostel so no complaints 
A pleasant quiet ride alongside Loch Fyne and to Lochgilphead, where we spent s night several years ago in a motor home. I recall at that time we judged that the town was the most miserable and depressing that we visited. This morning there was little to change that assessment, although most places look better when it's not raining.
And also from a distance 
I spent most of today on The Kintyre peninsula. I looked for the Mull, but in the absence of guardsmen playing bagpipes and hippies playing keyboard badly, it was not easy to identify. I took this photo somewhere near
Then a few miles later I saw a sign to Mull of Kintyre lighthouse. It was downs rough road and 7 miles away, so I figured Paul and Linda were less important than reliably inflated tyres.
Tarbert is a splendid little port about halfway down the peninsular, with ferries to Arran. 
I had a coffe here then kept going South
Kintyre has links with so much romance it's almost palpable. On the way round you can see Arran, Islay and Jura, not to mention coming the closest ever to Northern Ireland.
Ferries are everywhere. Not the highly developed ports we are used to in the south, but little landing stages where vital links are maintained 
The peninsular itself has farming and forestry as its main industries. The scale of the forestry is truly staggering as this landscape shows.
The weather forecast had rain at 1pm. The locals said midday, in fact it came at about 2pm. After that pictures were impossible as I concentrated on keeping the bike on course. The scenic road from Lochgilphead to Obam is, I am sure, a delight. But I saw little of its delights. Just before the rain I spotted this monstrosity 
Overlooking this wonderful beach
Presumably it had been a hotel. It's certainly not used now, with boards at the windows, but no one has had the decency to pull it down.
Oban is currently cold and wet. I arrived, after riding three hours in the rain, to find a pleasant modernised hostel, with a drying room that requires you to go outdoors to put clothes in it. I'm sure someone thought that through!!!
Weather forecast for tomorrow: Rain.




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