Monday 26 November 2018

Bicycling on the Ardnamurchan peninsula

Now thats a start to a blog post I'd never thought I'd write! Mrs R decided a while back we should go up to Strontian for the weekend at the most Excellent Sunart Camping but being winter and only having daylight from 9 - 4 motorcycles were discarded but Fi had the great (??) idea to take bicycles. We set off on Friday after work on a particularly wet and dark evening, bicycles in the back of the pick up, sleeping bags and tea making equipment stowed (we were in one of Tim's excellent cabins) Jake and Ali arrived as we were leaving and unfortunately we had to say hello and goodbye and leave as we had a fair journey, a ferry to catch and more importantly a booking for food at the local pub.
A reasonable journey, some craic with the ferrymen and a nice meal followed by a convivial but not outrageous night at the Inn.
Saturday was unbelievably glorious, sun shining but cold, we set off round the Loch, me panting and complaining (I much prefer an engine) but to be honest going much slower allowed me to appreciate the scenery more, several times I tried to get pictures of Herons as they majestically swooped along the loch looking for food but as soon as I raised the camera they buggered off! I did 10 miles, Fiona 12 (I stalled at the top of a big hill and refused to down it as it meant coming back up on the way back) A pleasant way to spend the day but even Fiona was saying that she preferred an engine.
Another more hectic evening in the pub on Saturday (earlier start) meant I left Mrs R to pilot us home on Sunday. On the Saturday night the pub was quite busy when we went to eat but empty when we came back, a local octogenarian had gone missing earlier in the day and being such a cold night there was some concern, the locals to a man (and woman) immediately set of to search, a couple of hours later the man was found with not too much adverse effects, the rescuers came back to the pub, job done, brilliant thing about these rural communities, in times of need they all help each other, all in all a braw weekend but the Tour De France can wait a wee while yet!


The burn at Strontian
Local wildlife
And again
Nice day for it
Cooler when the sun went down
Snow on the peaks
Nature lighting the hills
An ethereal glow
The loch
Reflections
Bicyclist
Calm loch
Not so calm Gino
Braw
Waiting on Fiona to catch up......
Interesting sign for those telecoms geeks amongst us 

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