I had taken 2 bikes with me to scotland my trek ex 9 mountain bike and my trek 1.9 road bike. I had told my self i was going to force myself out on the road bike at least once as i had a ride in mind that looked ace on the map. So the 7th day of my scotland trip i deceided to head out on it. I was a bit worried when i woke up as the temp had been -5 through the night and there was a hard frost on the road, i let the sun rise to defrost the road and set off at 10.30am. I headed down and through fort william on the a82 for 14 miles to the corran ferry terminal and jumped on the ferry (which is free to cyclist's, excellent) to ardgour.
on the ferry
Once across i let the cars get off and go where ever they were going and i set off on the a861 southwards, it followed the coast down for a few miles and the views across the loch to glencoe were amazing
After a few miles the road turned away from the coast and headed inland there was a small climb from here into the mountains along the side of the river tarbert once at the top i decented down into glen tarbert. Dropping down into the glen there was a massive decrease in temperture and there was frost and ice all over the road, the river that ran at the side of me was frozen i reckon it must have been a really cold night here
I rode across the glen on quiet country lanes through the small town of strontian and along side of loch sunart dodging black ice all the way, the decents were alot slower than i should of been going but i really didnt want to come a cropper in the middle of nowhere it is really remote round here. I started heading north and went round the end tip of loch shiel up another climb and the down to loch moidart from here a big climb over the hills led back down to the coast with nice views over the sounds of arisaig after another 10 miles of following the coast i arrived at the t juction of the a830 a road with cars on.
From the ferry termianl to this t junction was around 45 mile and over those miles i only past 7 cars (yes i was counting them).
Along the side of the sound of arisaig
The a830 goes straight back to fort william in 25 miles i stopped at one of the lochs to take a picture as it was deadly still.
I rode back as hard as could for the last 20 miles and managed to do it in under a hour, i rode through a short snow shower which made my face nearly freeze up, i wanted to make the ride upto a 100 mile by adding in a extra 15 mile loop but i was so cold when i got back to fort william deceided a warm shower and a beer sounded better. Anyway 85 miles is a good length for a road ride.
Was a cracking ride that i will prob do again when i have a free day up there, would like to do it again in warmer weather so i dont have to worry about ice.
Gps reading from the ride
I had 2 days left in fort william but unfortunatly the weather got colder with it going down to -10 some nights and snow moved in, so i chilled out for the last 2 days eating food and relaxing
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