The weather forecast for the next week north of the border was growing more depressing everytime we saw it. The last time we camped was back in Builth Wells. It doesn't appear like we'll be putting that to rights anytime soon.
Yesterday, we had a change to our original plan, which was to take the ferry over to the Isle of Arran, cycle to the north of the island and then catch another ferry back onto the mainland and to follow the road up to Oban from there. The weather forecast was promising gales and heavy rains, which meant there was a possibility that some or all of our ferries would be cancelled, so we opted to stay on the mainland and run up to Glasgow and around Loch Lomond. The main issue with our change of route meant that we might have to run the gauntlet of heavy traffic around Glasgow.
So, through occasional showers we made good going, 70 miles, to end up for the evening in a Travelodge at Glasgow airport. Not glamourous but it brought us back on track to make Ben Nevis for Wednesday. Unfortunately, the weather forecast was worsening.
We got up this morning with promises of 70 mile an hour winds and heavy rain. In cycling terms, it's like the reverse of Christmas day. But we got our head down and made it across the Clyde on the Erskine Bridge in relatively good time. From there it was onto Dumbarton and north along the shore of Loch Lomond. As we rode, the wind started to build. As the wind built, the more branches and trees fell to block our progress.
By the time we got to Tarbet, the wind was positively dangerous, we had resorted to cycling the main A82 road as the cycle path was constantly causing us to divert around fallen trees. We were running the risk of being blown into the path of overtaking cars, so we decided to call it a night and seek out a B&B.
Currently writing this in the middle of a power cut. It seems that the high winds have done for the local electricity grid so our washing we put in the machine earlier is now being held hostage and all we've had for dinner is a cold sandwich. Still, the couple that own the B&B are lovely and tomorrow can't possibly get any worse than this can it?
Yesterday, we had a change to our original plan, which was to take the ferry over to the Isle of Arran, cycle to the north of the island and then catch another ferry back onto the mainland and to follow the road up to Oban from there. The weather forecast was promising gales and heavy rains, which meant there was a possibility that some or all of our ferries would be cancelled, so we opted to stay on the mainland and run up to Glasgow and around Loch Lomond. The main issue with our change of route meant that we might have to run the gauntlet of heavy traffic around Glasgow.
So, through occasional showers we made good going, 70 miles, to end up for the evening in a Travelodge at Glasgow airport. Not glamourous but it brought us back on track to make Ben Nevis for Wednesday. Unfortunately, the weather forecast was worsening.
We got up this morning with promises of 70 mile an hour winds and heavy rain. In cycling terms, it's like the reverse of Christmas day. But we got our head down and made it across the Clyde on the Erskine Bridge in relatively good time. From there it was onto Dumbarton and north along the shore of Loch Lomond. As we rode, the wind started to build. As the wind built, the more branches and trees fell to block our progress.
By the time we got to Tarbet, the wind was positively dangerous, we had resorted to cycling the main A82 road as the cycle path was constantly causing us to divert around fallen trees. We were running the risk of being blown into the path of overtaking cars, so we decided to call it a night and seek out a B&B.
Currently writing this in the middle of a power cut. It seems that the high winds have done for the local electricity grid so our washing we put in the machine earlier is now being held hostage and all we've had for dinner is a cold sandwich. Still, the couple that own the B&B are lovely and tomorrow can't possibly get any worse than this can it?
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