Day 10 -Campbeltown – Rothesay
Well the first thing to say is that the gear changing problem has been solved and I have had no problems today. That is a huge relief and made today’s journey psychologically better.
Tracey gave me a room at the side of the Dellwood Hotel (the bit tacked on the side)
and told me to take the bike into the room which I did after much head-scratching as the door to the outside and the door to the room interfered with each other and I had to lift the bike up and wriggle her through the gap. Having done that, I did the usual and then thought about food. I really didn’t fancy a 500 yard walk down the hill and back so extricated the bike and went to get fish and chips and a bottle of wine. Food was good and wine made it better. I then had to wriggle the bike in again.
Having got the bike back in the room I looked hard at the derailleur and realised that the limit screw which moves the derailleur further away from the cassette was fully extended, hence the problem because the jockey wheel on the derailleur was interfering with the cassette. A couple of inward turns moved everything away from the cassette and hey presto I have a working gear system which operated perfectly today.
The major plus point of the room was that it contained a very efficient electric heater that dried my sopping shoes, and the kit that I washed, very swiftly. There was a bar in the hotel, but I made do with my bottle of wine and went to bed at 10. The double bed was comfortable and I slept fairly well.
Breakfast this morning was a good FSB with Lorne sausage (look it up if you don’t know) and I shared the room with a foursome of American golfers who are over for a week playing local courses and visiting distilleries.
I was away at 0934, my route up the east side of the Kintyre peninsula. When I planned it I didn’t realise quite how hilly it would be, totally different from the east coast. It was reminiscent of cycling in Devon and Cornwall with short steep climbs and then drops back to sea level before doing it all over again.
In view of the rain the camera stayed in my pocket for much of the morning but it would have been nice to get a picture of the otter that loped across the road in front of me as I was descending fast.
It would have been quite fun, as I was feeling Ok in myself, but it rained incessantly until I was about 5 miles from Tarbert so by the time I arrived at the ferry I was very wet and cold. The ferry takes 25 minutes to transport you from West Tarbert, across Loch Fyne, to Portavedie and cost me £3.80
I arrived at about 1340 for the 1440 ferry and started talking to a lady who keeps a sailing boat in the area, currently at Portavedie, and had been across to do her shop at the Tarbert Co-op. She and her husband live in Cumbria and sail up and down the coast leaving the boat in different harbours through the winter.
As we were waiting about 20 cyclists turned up on posh bikes. Talking to one of them on the ferry journey they are from a Perth cycle club and are on a 5 day trip around the area. Steve was interested in my journey and, having asked my age, hoped that he’d be able to do the same when he gets there. At 65 he looked pretty fit, so I expect he’ll still be cycling at my age. Many of the others in the group were considerably younger. They took off from the ferry at great speed and I didn’t see them again.
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Ther weather had cleared considerably and there was even sunshine as I made the long climb away from Loch Fyne past Kames and up through the Kyles of Bute. Some very pretty scenery including hillsides covered in Rhododendrons
At the top of the climb is a viewpoint with a board explaining the geography
Once around the Kyle I had about eight miles to go to the next ferry which was to take me across to the Isle of Bute.
I was getting quite weary again but there was plenty of juice left in the battery so it stayed on for the rest of the journey. The ferry takes you from Colintraive on the mainland to the Isle of Bute: it’s a very short hop and cost me £1.70.
Once on the island it was a flat 7 mile ride to Rothesay. As my B&B was beyond the main town and I didn’t fancy venturing out again, I took the opportunity of feeding myself on the way through, once again, on very nice haddock and chips, this time with mushy peas and I brought a bottle of wine back to the hotel with some Jaffa cakes for pud.
