The sunshine woke us up this morning! Blue sky and lots of sun! After a great breakfast, we said our goodbyes to Jane and set off to circumnavigate the south end of Arran Island. We passed some road notice signs indicating that the road we were on would be closed in 2 days for a week or so for resurfacing. So happy our timing is right!
Temporary blue sky. Weather reports indicate it will be raining shortly.
It’s amazing how a sunny day can brighten one’s outlook. The scenery was fabulous. Arran Island is beautiful! We could dawdle today since we only have to ride 40k and catch the ferry at 4:40.
Sunny view from the top of one of the many little rises along today's route.
As we rode along enjoying the scenery, seeing other cyclists, we found Lagg Distillery. Our B&B host told us about it, so we stopped in to check it out. We didn’t have time to taste any whiskies while we were on Islay, so why not today when we have a surplus of time. Taste we did. Lagg Distillery is in its infancy and has only been in operation for 5 years, so none of their whiskies have been aged that long.
We walked through their gift shop, looked at cycling jerseys, wool caps, and all the various bottles of whisky (some from Lagg and others from their sister distilleries). Then this happened.
It was possible to bottle your own from a cask of our second favorite whisky that we had tasted. We could carry a 20cl bottle on the tandem, no problem! Here he is just getting started.
Filling the beaker. Regulations state that it must be exactly 20cl and if it goes over by the slightest amount, it must be poured back into the cask and redone. Chuck was a few DROPS short, so the employee topped it off for him. I counted 4 drops.
Continuing along our route, the sun still with us, we saw cargo ships sailing, the Ailsa Craig, more kelp covered beaches, interesting houses, castle remnants, and still no rain. The day has been a tad windy, but we'll take that wind over rain! We missed seeing the Dinosaur Footprints, but it would have been quite a walk to get to them. Probably wasn't a good idea in bike shoes. We caught our last ferry of this trip in Brodick which delivered us to Ardrossan. We rode a couple kilometers along the waterfront to our hotel.
Looking across the bay from the ferry terminal at the Brodick Castle, Gardens, and Country Park. The clouds have started to build and the wind has become quite brisk. We actually took to waiting indoors at this point.
There were a total of 18 bikes on the ferry. We made sure we were first on so the Chinook would be set safely against the wall. The two bikes leaning against it were very nice bikes and the owners were extremely careful stacking them. About half were stored here for the voyage.
Accommodations: The Lauriston Hotel. We were assigned to Room 2 where the one big window's latch was broken. The storm blew in while we were having dinner and blew like crazy all night long. We had a few things pressed against the window holding it from opening more than an inch or so (fresh air). We eventually stuck a tube under it and that kept it secure all night. When we checked out, we told them about the broken window latch and the response was that they knew and maintenance hadn't gotten to it yet! When asked for a review, I wrote to the manager/owner instead. (Update: received a good response from the owner who is on leave and was upset the room was rented out when it was broken.). Other than that, it was just fine. Old, not fancy, but quite adequate, and not much else in this town.
