Day 118 Kyleakin to Mallaig

 

 Date: Friday 3^rd August 2012   Distance: 22.6 Miles

 

A prompt breakfast with no small talk and we were off by 9am It was back towards the bridge then up beside the open sea until we turned left to the road parallel with the mainland. We passed the ale connoisseurs from Strathecarron who were perusing a map atop their car. Across the water there were fine views of the mainland.

 

We were lucky to notice a cyclist negotiating a gate to what looked like a cycle path. It was- unofficially -and would take us to nearer our destination at Armadale saving us the stream of cars and lorries heading for the ferry there. The path was lovely but you could still hear the traffic. Back on the road there were sea lochs and views across, then a helicopter parked in someone’s garden.

 

Plans were to visit Armadale gardens and go on the later ferry giving us less time to wait for the train in Mallaig. Luckily as we saw the ferry was in we decided to go for it and we realised Bob had the wrong times, when the boat left immediately. We might have missed the train if we had relied on the times he had. It took long enough to cross to drink a cup of tea and there had been no charge for the bike.

 

 

Mallaig was buzzing! We had lunch at a lovely cafe called the Tea Garden on an upstairs patio while a girl played Scottish tunes on a violin, on the street opposite and later haunting harp music. Two hours later she walked by carrying her instruments home. Such stamina.

 

We were really pleased to see the German family now joined by their eldest son. They stopped and chatted and we at last exchanged email addresses. They must have been on a few of our films from the bike camera. The odds were stacked against us seeing them today so we were lucky. They would be taking a few days cycling back to Inverness.

 

We watched the steam train leave for Fort William regretting that we couldn’t take the tandem on it. We still had some time to kill so we visited the little heritage museum but it wasn’t a patch on the others we have seen, everything being very dated and tired looking. I was asked to fill in a questionnaire rating the exhibits and to my shame I couldn’t tell the truth. It was mostly photos and the video of wildlife was so amateurish and old it had spots across the film and jumped while a banal commentary crackled over it. I hope someone was braver than me.

 

Our 5 and a half hour train journey was beautiful with endless mountains for it followed the West Highland Way and stopped at every station, some on summits hence the slow pace. The train soon filled with rucksacks and walkers. It is only 180 miles to Glasgow!

 

We arrived at 10pm where we stayed in a city Premier Inn carrying the tandem upstairs to the conference room for the night. Next day we travelled home.