Leg 4, Day 6: Girvan to Largs

Our 'pre breakfast snack' in the Girvan RNLI crew room this morning included coffee, a pot of porridge each and an entire box of sugar puffs with milk.... This seemed to hit the spot!

Re fuelled and well rested we were soon back on the road and churning through the miles. The scenery for the first part of the day was fairly uninspiring, however this soon changed as we hit the coastal road...

With stunning views along the coast and out to Aisla Craig, and fantastic rolling countryside, things were certainly looking up (following a day on the A75!)

Our route took us through Ayr with it's beautiful Town Centre...

and included a stop at a local bakery for some more hot breakfast baps (not quite as good as Veronica's!) and a pack lunch for later on. Rad also managed to perfect his smile for the camera, producing total consistency....

Our route took us further up the Ayrshire coast past several pretty (and some rather less attractive) seaside villages and towns. 

The first stop of the day was Troon Lifeboat Station. As we were running fairly tight on time to make our Ferry later in the day, there was only time for a couple of quick photos before we were back in the saddle...

 

The sun came out, the terrain was fairly flat, and (apart from Rad's chat), things were looking pretty good....

We made Troon in good time to catch the Caledonian MacBrayne Ferry to Ayre; a well weathered boat which looked like it had seen some severe storms in it's day.....

A quick lunch on the deck in the sun and we were soon pulling into port on the isle of Arran...

A half hour ride south took us southwards across the island to the small village of Lamlash with the Island's only RNLI station. A rare opportunity arose to relax and take it all in (I had found a glitch in Rad's usually seamless, and at times militant organisation, with a two hour wait until the next Ferry!), before heading black across the island for out return trip to the mainland...

From Arran onwards the cycling was some of the best of the trip... The road was smooth, the sun was on our backs and the gentle tailwind pushed us north to our final destination- Largs RNLI. 

Dave the LOM of the station welcomed us and  kindly showed us around before leaving us to shower, wash kit, dry kit, unpack, set up camp beds and prepare for the next day (a routine we are now well versed in, and which Rad executes with military precision - daily!)

We were then free to head out for a bite to eat in town before bed in preparation for our biggest day of the tour yet....



Leg 4, Day 5: Kirkcudbright to Girvan

Today was a slightly odd affair because while most of the main ingredients of a fantastic day were present (beautiful sunshine, hardly any wind, stunning varied scenery, good food and great road surfaces) we were stuck on A75 for 90% of the 147km that we cycled. 
 

 

The A75 is the main road that follows the coast and while there are times that it becomes a dual carriageway, for the majority of the time it is a two lane road that accommodates large amounts of haulage, probably going to Stranraer ferry terminal on their way to or from Ireland. 

The problem with this is twofold,most obviously the lorries that on the whole try their best to give sufficient distance but still make a cyclist feel a touch uncomfortable at they pass at 70mph. The second is that to minimise our impact on traffic we were forced to cycle one in front of the other, rather than side by side which is our preferred method and usually results in much better conversation and consequentially the feeling that 30km has passed without much effort at all. 

The day went as follows and is a good indication to our general plan of attack:

06:30 alarm goes off, coffee in hand ASAP, change, pack up, general tidy of the crew room.

07:00 try our best to be on the bikes cycling, a gentle pace which we keep for 2 hours or 50km.

09:00 breakfast. This is normally taken at some local bakery where we try our best to rack up a surprisingly expensive bill from what seems to be extremely reasonably priced items. Simpsons of Stanraer, located rather confusing in Newton Stewart was today's residence and we ordered the following:

Two bacon, sausage and egg baps

Two coffees

Three scotch pancakes (when in Rome!)

Two scones with jam and butter

Orange juice

Lucozade

Two apple turnovers

Two chicken mayo sandwiches

Two chocolate rice crispy cakes. 

Total of £17

Our verdict was that Simpsons were indeed 'Quality Bakers'.

    

        Newton Stewart high street. 

Us churning through some miles on the A75.

The only period that we didn't spend on the A75 was the detour off to visit out two intermediate stations of the day: Portpatrick and Strenraer.

Portpatrick was a beautiful little fishing village located at on the western edge of the Strenraer Peninsula. 

Portpatrick harbour looking north towards the RNLI Station.

Portpatrick looking south towards some... err... houses. 

We took 20 mins rest here and had a snack or two and enjoyed the warmth of the morning sun on our faces. Some old people gave me rather odd looks, possibly because I had unzipped my cycling jersey exposing a little too much of my bobbed shorts and HR monitor. Porno.

The journey from Portpatrick to Stranraer was probably the best part of today's cycle. Gentle hills took us to the crest of the peninsula where we were greeted with expansive views north towards our next station.

Looking towards Stranraer

Stranraer was looking its best in the sun and with glassy flat water, which went some way to making up for the profligate use of pebbledash which seemed to cover every building in site, including the RNLI Station. 

A brief skimming competition was a welcome rest.

Our final leg was a 60km amble North to Girvan (back on the A75) which hugged the coast and made way for the classic west coast scenery that we had both imagined is trip would entail. 

Looking out to Ailsa Craig/

Our arrival in Girvan is announced by was of our rinsed Lycra hanging to dry in the evening sun. After a little bike maintenance we hit a local pub for supper and enjoyed the feeling of another day done and a few ore adventures ahead. 

Leg 4, Day 4: Silloth to Kirkcudbright

To our great relief we woke to a calm dry day in Silloth Lifeboat Station... Although the sun was not shining, the lack of headwind and rain were a huge relief following our previous day's drenching...

This was the start of our longest day yet for 2013, with over 165 km ahead of us. The immensely frustrating thing however, was that as the crow flies, we would only cover around 50km during the day! As with many other estuaries and inlets around the coast of Britain, the Solway firth involves cycling huge distances in entirely the wrong direction in order to get to your destination (see below).
 

With our expedition likely to total over 7,000 km by the time we have returned to London (further than cycling from London to Sudan!) it was suddenly dawning on us that sailing or even rowing between stations might have been a better plan!

We set off through the cobbled streets of Silloth heading due east at the start of the day...

Getting our heads down, we made good progress across what was relatively flat countryside, and began churning through the miles.

 

Stopping briefly at Costa for a coffee and some breakfast, Rad noticed that one of the bolts holding the cleat to the bottom of his shoe had fallen out, which needed replacing urgently. The nearest cycle shop along the route was in Dumfries so we set off immediatley in search of this.

At some point along this section of the day we crossed into Scotland... a huge and symbolic step in our trip, yet surprisingly with no road signs or any indication that we had done so!

Our route then took us along a number of cycle paths which Rad had brilliantly included within our itinerary, including this one along the river Nith, as below...

 

After taking some directions from a local cyclist, we arrived in Dumfries and quickly found Kirkpatrick Cycles. For anyone looking for bike repairs / spares in  theDumfries area we can certainly recommend this fantasic shot. Ross very kindly gave us the necessary bolts to repair Rad's shoe and a spare free of charge, before sending us on our way. 

Shortly afterwards we stopped off for lunch at a farm shop, to refuel, rehydrate and recharge before the afternoon ahead. While very tempted to take a duck with us in the handlebar bag, we decided against this ingenious plan, and forged ahead.

 

We were soon back on the road and arrived at our first station of the day; Kippford RNLI.

 

Whilst taking a photograph outside the station we were met by a very welcoming chap called Jim, who we soond found out was the operations manager of Kippford RNLI.

 

Jim rocked up on an legendary motorbike (pictured below!), and proceeded to invite us to the yacht club for a cheeky pint. Frankly it didn't take a huge amount of persuasion to bring us around to the idea and we were soon sampling a great local ale! Kippford was having it's annual sailing regatta week and the place was buzzing.

  

For those readers who have not been to Kippford before, the best way we could describe this fantastic little hidden gem, is being a smaller version of Rock / Salcombe in Scotland... Situated on a beautiful estuary, very welcoming and friendly people people and more crew clothing than you can shake a stick at! 

 

 

Following a quick pint and £82 of generous donations from various members of Kippford Yacht Club, we were soon back on the road again. We ploughed on through stunning rolling Scottish hills and with the sun now out, at last heading in a westerly direction and a pint in us, things were starting to look up...

 

 

At around 5pm we at last arrived in the pretty high street of Kirkcudbright town (below), famed for it's arts and crafts. After taking directions from one of the RNLI crew who we bumped into on arrival, be soon found our way to the crew room in town...

John Collins kindly met us at the crew room where we would be spending the night, and having shown us around, led the way in their RNLI Landrover (with us following behind on bikes) down to the Lifeboat Station itself. The station is situated out of town, some four miles away at a point further down the estuary which is accessible at all tides. The approach led us down a  down a long rough gravel track... 

John gave us a tour of this Historic station is the longest serving station in Scotland. The station now houses an Altantic 75 rib with twin 115hp engines all the bells and whistles.

Uniquely the rib is on a ramp to allow quick launching, into what John explained is the third fastest tidal race in the British Isles.

 

 

View down the launching ramp and across the Dee Estuary...

 

 

 

View from the station out towards the isle of Mann (in the distance).

Following the station tour, John and his family very kindly had us back to their home for a hot shower and a delicious dinner and our first Whisky (or three!) having entered Scotland.....

 

After supper, a slightly wobbly cycle ride took us back to the crew room in town to the sort our kit, write the blog post and prepare for the day ahead....