Fort William to Strontian : an up and down day

I woke to a helicopter free morning, cloudy but not as cold as I was expecting after yesterday. I had a brief chat with the man in a tent next to mine, who was cycling around the area for a couple of days, then packed up my tent and set off on the slightly downhill ride into Fort William. In town I headed for the railway station and the Lochaber Cafe, where I had a fabulous breakfast of scrambled eggs on toast. A train arrived whilst I was eating, and as I left the station I noticed that it was the Caledonian Sleeper. I’d earmarked this as a potential for getting up to Scotland as it ran direct from Crewe to Fort William, however on further inspection it had proved useless. For one I would have been unable to board my bike at Crewe as the platforms weren’t long enough(!), and also I’d have had to change coaches at Edinburgh (in the wee hours). Such a shame.

On leaving the station I headed to the Camusnagaul ferry landing point, and then headed inland into the High Street where I stopped to text Sandra to arrange for her to get onto the Fort William webcam to see me. While I was doing this an old lady came up to me and started chatting. It turned out she used to manage Nevis Cycles in the town, and also came from Pickering in North Yorkshire despite her strong Scottish accent. It was lovely talking to her, but I had to go to catch the ferry. Heading from High Street to the West End roundabout I circled back onto the shared path beside the loch and stopped to wave to Sandra on the webcam (which you can view here ; Fort William Webcam). It was slightly surreal, but gave me a nice feeling of connection to her at home. I waved my goodbye and set off for the ferry across the loch, where I was the only passenger apart from the ship’s dog.

Over at Camusnagaul I set off on the A861, a narrow road with passing places running alongside Loch Eil, with the busier A82 on the other side of the water. The road crossed many flowing streams and rivers, and passed through a few small hamlets. At one point I passed a small group of Highland cattle and stopped for a photo. The road was nice and quiet with very little traffic, and there were plenty of gulls, geese, herons and cormorants (or shag, I can never remember which) on the loch side. There were some threatening looking clouds ahead though, and I wondered if I was in for a bit of rain later. Eventually I came to the A82 by the railway cottage at Drumsallie where I found a sign proclaiming “any person who omits to shut and fasten this gate is liable to a penalty not exceeding forty shillings”.

I joined the main road for a couple of miles. The traffic was fairly light, although what there was passed me at speed, and I was grateful for my lights. Soon though, I turned off onto a Forestry Commission track at Callop that would take me alongside Loch Shiel. There was a bit of a climb initially before reaching the loch, although the track surface was fairly good. From the track I could see the Glenfinnan Monument and Viaduct, and also saw a heron in flight. The loch was a dark grey as opposed to the deep blues I’d encountered yesterday, reflecting the difference in the weather. Heading south along the track I was riding into a strong blustery wind which made for hard going at times on the rollercoaster path. I passed the Mowi Guesachan fish farm, and many little streams tumbling down the hills to my left into the loch. As I rode further the track moved slightly away from the loch with more trees encroaching, and rode through avenues of tall trees with the scent of pine in the air. I passed a lovely looking cottage that I suspected was a holiday let.

A little further on I came across a dog walker with two collies, one on a lead and the other running up to and in front of me. Her name was Iris - the dog, not the walker - and she clearly wanted to play, as she dropped a stick at my front wheel. I say stick, it as more like a limp twig, but I picked it up and threw it for her. Naturally she brought it back and dropped it again. We went through this ritual a couple of times before I set off again. The track swung inland and climbed up towards Polloch, running alongside the River Polloch. At Loch Shiel car park the track joined a tarmaced road where I turned south. Crossing the River Polloch by a bridge I noticed a two man kayak in the water, heading upstream into Loch Doilean.

The road started climbing now, and I knew I had a beast of a climb ahead of me. I could see the loch dropping away to my left, through the trees. It was very quiet and peaceful in the forest as I climbed, and I hadn’t seen a car since leaving the A82. Eventually I came to the start of the beast, two miles at an average of 10.4% and climbing over a thousand feet. After the headwind slog of the track down Loch Shiel I was in no state to ride my laden bike up this, and so decided to walk up. This proved to be not much easier, what with the weight of the bike coupled with the fact that the panniers kept ramming into my legs as I pushed, however with frequent stops to take in the surroundings I finally made it all the way up to the top at a cattle grid. Here a Post Office van appeared from behind me, sadly too late for me to hitch a lift if I’d wanted! What goes up must come down of course, and so began a three mile descent to Strontian, with Loch Sunart in the distance.

It was a fabulous descent, a good road surface with a few switchbacks making me dream of being a Tour de France rider! Where it seemed I was pushing up the climb for ever, it seemed all to short a time before I was passing buildings again, and the road was beginning to flatten out. In no time I came to Strontian Fire Station and some schools across the Strontian River, and then I reached the A861 main road where I turned left and headed to the local community centre where I hoped to get a coffee at Cafe Sunart. Sadly though I was an hour and a quarter too late, as it had closed at 3pm. Instead, I called in at Strontian Stores and spent less than £20 on supplies for tea and breakfast, as well as a sandwich and a coffee that would satisfy me now. Once I’d polished these off I headed to the campsite and pitched my tent, showered and then settled for a relaxing evening. No helicopters this time, and the birds went to sleep early, leaving just the owl to disturb the peace when I went to sleep.

Oban to Fort William : ferries, beer and deer

I woke early at 5:15, with one of the other hostel guests snoring gently in the room. I dozed for a while then got up at 6:45, sorted my panniers out and left the room, accidentally setting off the room door alarm by not shutting it properly! I collected my bike from the cycle store and set off on the short ride to the ferry terminal to catch the first ferry over to Craignure at 7:55. It was an absolutely glorious day, not a cloud in the sky and with little wind. 

Two other cyclists were already at the muster point waiting for the ferry, and we swapped stories of our plans. One of the cyclists mentioned that the Corran ferry, which I was due to take on Sunday, was free for Over 60s, which I made a mental note of. We boarded the ferry, secured our bikes and then I went up onto the deck for the rest of the journey. Disembarking I made a quick toilet stop and bought some water at the shop, then headed off west towards Salen.

I had planned to photograph the Salen boats, which I hadn’t done on my last trip in September, but with five miles to go to Salen I realised I wasn’t going to make it there and back to Fishnish to catch the ferry for Lochaline, so turned around and headed back. At the ferry terminal I saw a heron on the slipway, seemingly waiting for the ferry to arrive, which it did within ten minutes. The heron flew off, and I boarded for the short trip over to Lochaline, where I headed straight for the Morvern Community Cafe to get some breakfast. After a breakfast bap and coffee I went to Lochaline Stores to get some supplies and then headed off for Ardgour along the same rolling roads I’d ridden last year. This time though, I turned off on the B8043 which was a new road for me, and which proved to be a treat with some stunning views of Loch Uisge and Loch a Choire. It was a rollercoaster of a road, with some fast downhills and some short, steep ramps. I stopped to take a photo at one point, and a passing motorist checked to see if I was ok which was very nice and appreciated. The weather was getting a little grey by now, and on reaching Kingairloch Church it began to drizzle a little, providing me with a view of a rainbow. It didn’t last though, and by the time I reached the shores of Loch Linnhe it had stopped and blue skies were again the norm. Turning north I was treated to the sight of snow capped mountains in the distance.

In due course I joined the A861 at Inversanda, which was a much busier road with traffic, and so I switched my lights on. Traffic hurried past, heading for the Corran ferry I assumed, and indeed when I arrived at the ferry terminal there were a number of vehicles that had passed me in the queue waiting for the ferry to arrive from Corran. I headed on to Ardgour where I stopped for a sandwich, with an amazing view looking along Loch Linnhe towards Fort William in the far distance. Setting off again I had only gone a short distance when I came across Ardgour Ales brewery which was open, and so I stopped for a pint (very nice) with another amazing viewpoint. After finishing my beer I set off again on the road hugging the shoreline, with superb views over the deep blue loch to the snow capped peaks.

 

At one point I came across a stag helping himself to some hay from a sheep’s feeder. I stopped to take a photo, and the stag ran off to the other of the field, from where he watched me, presumably waiting for me to go so he could return to his feed. Further along the road I came across a large herd of deer in a field between the road and the loch. Stopping to take another photo the deer also ran away from me en masse – I was beginning to get a complex! I was getting closer to Fort William with every pedal stroke, and the snowy mountains loomed larger. 

I rolled up to the Camusnagaul Ferry landing point and waited for the boat to arrive from across the loch. A local bus turned up and waited at the bus stop, then minutes before the ferry arrived it left again. The ferry docked and an old man got off and started walking up the slipway, but when he saw there was no bus he turned around and got back on the boat. My bike was loaded onto the ferry roof for the short journey over to Fort William, where I disembarked. Ahead of me across the road I could see the Black Isle Bar which was very tempting – I’d had a sensational pizza there previously and the beer is good too! Sadly though I had to find my way to the campsite in Glen Nevis, so with a rueful backwards glance I set off. It didn’t take long to find the campsite, and I quickly set my tent up and got showered. Being situated underneath Ben Nevis, it was a very scenic campsite, but very cold. I didn’t wait too long before getting into my sleeping bag to try to get some sleep. For some reason there were several helicopters flying around in the evening, and the mountains echoed the noise from their blades making it very noisy indeed. I hoped I’d get a decent night’s sleep ready for tomorrow’s efforts.

To Scotland again, by train!

I got up at 6am to ride to Crewe railway station for my first time taking the bike on trains. Opening the porch blind to a misty window, I decided it would be a good idea to change my dress code to two base layers and thermal gloves. After a bowl of porridge I loaded the bike and set off, the sun just rising on a chilly misty morning. I was a little nervous about getting to the station on time, but the traffic was light and I made good progress until Crewe Green roundabout where I was held up for a minute by the busy rush hour traffic, but once through it was plain sailing to the station.

At the ticket gate I checked to see if the tickets I had collected at Sandbach the previous day included my cycle reservation, but they hadn’t been printed for some reason. A quick visit to the ticket office ensued, where a very helpful chap printed off the necessary reservations for both today’s trip and the return on Monday. All set, I headed back to the ticket gate and found the lift down to the required platform, where I waited for the train to arrive. Shortly before it did I found a member of staff to come and open the door to the bike storage compartment, and I loaded the bike on board and sat down at my seat. Despite a few hiccups it was a fairly smooth process for my first time with a bike.

A nice relaxed journey ensued, the sun shining on gorgeous scenery as we sped through the Lake District, although after entering Scotland it began to cloud over and the on board screens told of light rain at Glasgow Central. Fortunately it had stopped when we arrived, and I headed out of the station and tried to load my route to Queen Street on my Garmin. This was taking some time as it was struggling to find the satellites, possibly due to the amount of tall buildings around, so I cancelled it and rode off, relying on my map memory to get me there. This worked fine, and it only took a couple of minutes to reach the station.

Queen Street was very busy, and my train wasn’t due for another 45 minutes. When it arrived, I saw it was composed of seven coaches, five of which were going to Fort William and two to Oban, these latter were at the front of the train. Unfortunately I took the front of the train to be the end that came into the station first, and only realised after waiting for a minute to load my bike. A quick dash along the platform to the front ensued, and I finally got the bike loaded and sat down for the three hour journey along the scenic West Highland Line.

We passed the Edrington Distillery and once past the urban surroundings of Glasgow the line travelled alongside the River Clyde, and I saw a few ferries at the shipyards on the far shore. We then passed lochs aplenty including Gare Loch with the Faslane Navy Base, Loch Long and Loch Lomond. The rain had resumed at this point, and it looked very driech outside, however the scenery was absolutely stunning in spite of this, with many tumbling waterfalls rushing down off the hills. We passed Loch Awe and the ruins of Kilchurn Castle, and at Dalmally station I spotted a pair of giant wooden bellows and other wooden objects on the platform. I also noticed a cockerel strutting around! After some glorious views of Loch Etive the train pulled into Oban station where I alighted and rode the short distance to Oban Youth Hostel, my bed for the night.

It had been a very good first experience of taking my bike on the train, even if it was a lot colder in Oban than at home!