Day 3. What no signal?

Sorry this post is a day late. We discovered there is no phone signal on most of the North West coastal route we took.

So on to the days events.... WINDY!
Nuf said.

Ok so maybe there was a bit more to it.... RAIN!

I think your forming a good mental picture by now.

As we packed up the tents at the Tobermory campsite the midges descended so the packing up was done quickly and wet. Annoyingly as we finished the sun came out for a wee while. This gave us a bit of time to try and dry our fly sheets.

Looks nice but the Midges love it to.

We then retired to the shelter the site provides to eat and cook in. We really took our time having breakfast. So much so that we did not leave till 11am.... Oops :-)

The start of the ride was very hilly, and from now on, on single track roads with passing palces, we should have realised the route were taking was going to be a chalange when the campsite owner did the old sharp in take of breath and then did the wavy arm up and down.

Out on the tops we took a break to change to warmer cloths, the wind had a chill in it and the odd rain shower was coming in. We noticed that Alex had parked his car close by, to go walking along Loch Frisa. His pictures/videos are great

Mean while Bobby and I slogged on over the hills towards our lunch stop

On the B8073 we came to a viewing point above the village of Dervaig. The view was great but the down hill cycle was even better. 

view over Dervaig

Another rain shower belted in just as we got to the bottom and we found cover under some trees.

We were starting to realise that these single track roads are a lot busier than we had expected and the constant stopping and starting was slowing us down.

We stopped at Calgary bay for lunch with Alex. The beach and dunes are beautiful. 

 Bobby and I even ventured for a paddle in the water. It is colder than it looks.

Earlier in the ride we had met another cyclist, Barry, who is on an 18 day solo cycle tour around the islands. We met Barry again on the beach where he had also stopped for lunch. His bike is amazing, it has huge thick mountain bike tyres on it so he could just cycle across the beach.

While on the beach we had another couple of rain showers blow through. 

After lunch we hit the strong winds and the heavy showers of rain which plagued us for the rest if the day. When it was not raining there was sunny intervals but they were getting smaller and smaller.

No! I am not coming out.

One of my aims in the trip was to get a few pictures of some highland coo's. We came rouns a corner to find a highland cow in the undergrowth, we tried to get the animal to turn round for a photo but he/she was not interested so we gave up and moved on, just to find round the next corner (about 50 yards) were another three highland cow's that were much more photogenic.

After another 12 miles we were supposed to meet Alex at a waterfall but we were very slow and Alex had moved on. But Barry was there planning to set up his wild camp for the night.

The waterfall was impressive,  the third drop was off a shear cliff down about three or four hundred feet. Difficult to get a picture.  The wind was so strong it was blowing some of the water back up as mist.

Meet Barry.

Oh look.... More rain coming.

We peddled on for the rest of the 30 mile total for the day and arrived,  knackered, at a very windy strip of stony land between the shore and the road. A very basic campsite.

Is that rain I see

Ah yes it is rain.

Time for a brew while the rain passes

I need more money if you want hot coffee ;0)

We decided to get the tents up and then nip to the nearest town to find phone signal and supplies.
Turns out the local hotel does carryouts ;-)

Well we got back, ate, and went the sleep fairly quickly.

So note for the day, thick tyres work great on the beach.

Thanks for listening B Road fans.

Will be handing over to number one son for today's (remember this bog was a day late) blog entry as he has had a good day.

Again will post photos when we get some WiFi.