June 5, 2005
To Mallaig
We left our B&B (up on top of a steep hill east of town) in a rush, hurrying to catch the ferry after being prompted by our hostess. I had misremembered the departure time, forgetting that it was Sunday and under a different schedule.
No rush - we arrived abut 10 minutes before departure, and enjoyed chatting with a trio of scottish bikers off on a weekend tour of Mull. All of them were enthusiastic and experienced tourists, and we compared notes on the Pyrenees, Slovenia and Corsica. Their advice, if we return, was to visit the outer Hebrides.
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The weather was tentative and the sky dramatic, with wild cloud formations rising over the channel and islands. This was a great relief, as we had dreaded the threatened/predicted foul conditions for our longest day of the tour, to Mallaig - the terminus of the ferry to Skye. Weather for the entire day was largely cooperative - decent winds in the morning, with only an occasional sprinkle. We stopped at Salen after 20 miles for an early lunch (lasagna for me, carrot soup for Rachael; and nothing at all to drink, as they seemingly lost our tea order). Over lunch we chatted with a rather unlively quartet of cyclists from Idaho, on their bikes for a week-long ride from Fort William to Oban.
The weather turned sunny by day's end, but for about 4 frustrating miles we cycled in the rain, struggling to catch up to an advancing clearing a hundred yards ahead. The final 15 miles were along beautiful coastline into a strong headwind, over small, steep rolling hills. We were thoroughly sacked by the time we finally arrived in Mallaig.
After finding and checking into a B&B, we hastily departed to restaurant row and soon settled down to a fine fish dinner. Rachael's order of monkfish was one of her favorites of the tour. From our table overlooking the bay, we were amused by the antics of an audacious gull, begging for chips from an uncooperative snacker, ripping trash from the public trash can, and staring down a passerby.
Today's ride: 61 miles (98 km)
Total: 567 miles (912 km)
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3 years ago