Thursday 15th April
We left Mallaig at 9.52 and began the longest ride of the holiday: over 40 miles to Fort William.
The Road to the Isles is one of the classic rides, although doubtless less spectacular now than it used to be when it was single track road all the way. Even though it’s a fast, two-lane A-road, there are still climbs and of course all the mountains are still in place, but on the last day of a long holiday it takes more determine cyclists than us to stick religiously to the old road, where it still exists.
We slogged along, often in low gear, but every so often there would be a long sweeping descent and a few times we exceeded 35 mph. We stopped for lunch at the Lochailort Hotel, but there was neither cake nor bacon butties. We bought tea and sat outside, smearing peanut butter on the rolls we had bought at the Mallaig Co-op.
Fortified, we carried on towards Glenfinnan, stopping briefly for a photograph of our first glimpse of Ben Nevis.
Glenfinnan, at the head of Loch Shiel, has an elevated statue of Bonnie Prince Charlie, commemorating the 1745 Gathering of the Clans. After Glenfinnan there is one more climb, quite gentle, and a rapid descent to Loch Eil.
From this point the road follows the lochside and there is no more climbing to speak of, so our speed kept up around 15 mph for long stretches. Every so often we would stop to take a picture of the monstrous mountain.
Once we were in Fort William, it did not take us long to find the station. Just before we did so, we passed a young couple who seemed to be struggling rather.
“Have you been up the Ben?” I enquired.
“Yes,” came the reply.
“Well done!” said I, “I could tell by the way you were walking!”
And that, really, was about that. We had a good meal and some beer in the Grog & Gruel, which I think is the only decent pub in Fort William, and then found the station. The train ride from Fort William is quite magnificent and I took a load more photos, after which we found our berth and had a bit of kip before getting up at 1 a.m in Edinburgh in order to transfer the tandem, in two pieces, from one guard’s van to another as our train joined up with two others. The next thing I knew we were in Rugby and we were in Liverpool Street in time to catch the 8.55 train to Southend.
All in all, not a bad little holiday.