We met two other cyclists at some traffic lights who were heading for the same ferry but on road bikes. As we cycled (not that far behind them) we enjoyed the coastal road along the Kintyre peninsula, taking in beautiful views of misty windy sea inlets.
As we rounded a bend we were met with the beautiful views of Tarbert's harbour which even in the rain was very pretty. Having stopped at tourist information to check that our ferry was still running we got a tip for lunch and enjoyed a hearty bowl of Cullen skink and chips (a new favourite for both of us!). This stop gave us the warm through we were desperate for and we hopped back on our bikes to steam ahead to our ferry. We popped back in to see the lovely old ladies in tourist info who gave a the lowdown on the ferry and said it was still running.
With this welcome news ringing in our ears we steamed our way out of tarbert towards the ferry. However the road was quite hilly and our lunch feasting sat heavy in our stomachs as we slogged our way up hills being overtaken by lorry loads of pine trees. It was hard to believe how much ascent we were enduring to reach a place that was surely at sea level! As we crawled up hills at a painfully slow pace we could feel the clock ticking. If we missed the ferry it was almost another 2 hours! Fortunately we got lucky and just as we thought we could take no more hills we rolled down into Claonaig ferry port, 8 minutes before the ferry. Plenty of time!
We huddled in a bus shelter with a number of other cyclists and hopped on the ferry the moment it arrived (it was so small it took them but seconds to unload the two cars on it). We met the other cyclists from the traffic lights there who were doing the three peaks and cycling between them.
We rolled off the ferry onto Arran conveniently close to the Arran whiskey distillery and popped in for a tour. The distillery tour was great as we sampled whiskey and got a proper tour round the distillery. We also got warm and dry! There's a campsite over the road from the distillery and apparently their morning tours are very popular with cold damp campers.
We climbed stunning hills from Lochranza to brodick, even being graced with two rainbows en route. We absolutely flew up some of the hills (an later discovered the gusts were 50mph!!). Having popped into Arran cheese shop and made the most of their samples we found our B and B for the night in brodick, a very very clean house. Almost too clean. We were recommended a place to grab some dinner where we had pizzas but it sadly wasn't a winner, although it filled a hole! After an enjoyable but pricey drink in the hotel in brodick we returned for a good night of sleep out of the rain and very high winds.
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