I’ve referenced this as post as starting (startiaboutng) [I’ve left this word in as it shows what WordPress is doing to my posts when I‘m not looking! Getting my excuses in early] in Tyndrum, but obviously, I started in London on the Caledonian Sleeper. I had a nice big single seat (the train is made up of 3 seats wide, a double, a wide passageway a single), but I must admit to not getting much sleep. This wasn’t helped by the need to change carriages at 4 am in Edinburgh. I couldn’t really understand why I would have to change while anyone in a bed could just sleep through. The reason is that they only put one seating carriage on in London, and when the train splits in Edinburgh (half to Aberdeen, and half to Fort William) and at Edinburgh they put on another after the train splits. So at 4:30 am, half a dozen of us are waiting for carriages to be attached. They actually attached four, or maybe more, carriages, which made us a very long train. This meant when we arrived in Tyndrum, the front of the train pulled in first to unload, and then edged along to my carriage to that two of us in “peasant class” could disembark.

Tyndrum was a tiny station and the weather got me into my waterproof jacket straight away as I loaded the bike up. The first cycling was down a big hill from the station, towards another station. Tyndrum is the smallest place in the UK with two stations (Upper and Lower). Its definitely related to geography between to distinct rail lines rather than passenger numbers. My first stop was the Good Food Cafe, for a full Scottish breakfast.

The cafe was remarkably busy with walkers of many nationalities, with seeming big groups of French and Germans. This is because this is on the West Highland Way (100 mile path from Glasgow to Fort William) and walkers were streaming past the window. It reminded me of being on the Camino. I had two choices of route, 1) starting as a scenic “gravel” route or 2) direct on the A85 (the first route was 10km longer, but avoided 10km of busy road). When I was planning to get to Oban, I was aiming for the Western Isles ferry that has a normal check-in time of 2 pm, so I picked the station/town that looked the fastest ride. The ferry was subsequently changed due to operational reasons to a 10am check in, which is an impossible ride. So I’m catching the ferry tomorrow, giving me time to consider the scenic route.

The scenic route was actually proposing I cycle 10km along the West Highland Way to The Bridge of Orchy, before taking a small road to join the A85. It didn’t sound too promising as my first bit of cycling, but the map showed it as the Military Road (roads built by the English in the early 1700s in an attempt to control the Scots) and it might actually be a good track. It wasn’t! It was rough, uphill (arghh), and had lots of hikers on it.

So it was the A85 for me. Upon reflection, it would have been better to get the train to The Bridge of Orchy. It’s the same distance to Oban, but avoids 10km of busy road. That said, on a drizzlely Tuesday morning, the road didn’t seem too busy. That was until the first uphill bends where I found an oil tanker behind me. I pulled over, got a toot and a wave, then carried on my way. This repeated a few times on the 40km until I was able to turn off onto quieter roads. The truck drivers were excellent, the car drivers pretty good, but there is something about Range Rover, and even Defender, drivers that makes them unable to move very far across the centre line, even when the road is completely clear – baffling!

I stopped a couple of times (firstly to put my waterproof shoe covers on) and had a few random chats. Two guys were heading to Inveraray for the Highland Games, doing “Grasstrack” on a fixed wheeled bicycle – which is quite a long way from “Tossing the Caber”. Also bumped into a family at the Hollow Mountain Power Station cafe (for my first Irn-Bru), who had found themselves on the A85 due to an accommodation mix up the night before.

With about 20km to go, I reached a blue cycle sign directing me to Oban. What followed was a delightful single track road, heading up into the hills. There were a few punchy climbs and I cycled up everything, although some of them took a fair amount of swearing to get over the crest. Once off the main road, I started to realise how wet I was. I’d only brought a flimsy waterproof, that seemed wetter inside than out. It transpired that the plastic was tearing (due to age) and was pretty useless. I do have some gaffer tape, but it seems like a poor solution on the first day of a tour.

I made it into Oban by 1pm – which meant I would have been able to catch the original ferry, had it been running. This had concerned me during planning, but it would have been relatively easy catching the ferry after the train. Although I wouldn’t of taken my two cafe stops and other numerous breaks.

I sat on the seafront for a bit, watching all the tourists in the shops, and the ferry/boat traffic in the harbour until it started raining again. I found myself in a Wetherspoons in the harbour, eating curry and drinking fine Scottish ale for £1.79 a pint. If you can’t beat the tourists then you might as well join them. That said, the big windows and online ordering made keeping an eye on my bike easy.

At this point, and with due regard to the weather forecast, I decided to buy a new jacket. I went looking for something stylish, and I came out of Mountain Warehouse with a super florescent waterproof yellow jacket. I think subconsciously, my ride on the A85 had affected my ability to make rational decisions.

I picked up a few essentials and headed off looking for a campsite. It was about 4 km to the campsite following ferry signs (to Kerrera), although there are ferry signs everywhere. I got a nice pitch in a car free section, with a table and good views across to Kerrera. Although I don’t really need a table, as my luxury item I’ve added to my kit is a chair, it’s a game changer. I’ll tell you more about it later! The site had pretty basic facilities for the cost £21, but did have a campers kitchen (kettle, toaster and microwave), and a “boil notice” on water for drinking – I’ll be using the kettle then!

I had a couple of local beers and some pasta for dinner, although it does feel like I’ve been eating all day, and had a really early night. I’d almost forgotten I’d had only about two hours sleep on the train.