I’ve Made A Huge Mistake (June 25th Update)

After having not spent a night in a tent for several months, my first night went exactly as I would’ve expected. It was only about 11:30 PM when I called it a night but it didn’t take long for me to drift off into blissful slumber. I awoke so refreshed it was fantastic. Perhaps the best sleep I’d had in months. There was just one problem. It was still dark out. And considering sunrise is around 4:30 AM, I knew I had just had a typical first night in a tent. My blissful sleep which had me ready to tackle the day had lasted a little more than an hour. Sigh.

I drifted in and out of sleep for the next several hours and when morning arrived I was once again greeted by the sun. Again, I was more than a little surprised. And appreciative. I knew this was unlikely to last so I planned to take advantage of every ray of sun that peaked through.

My plan for the day was to take a short ferry ride from Lochranza to Claonig. From there it would be a short ride to Kennacraig where another ferry would take me to Port Ellen on the Isle of Islay. While on Islay, I planned to visit a couple of distilleries (probably one today and one tomorrow) before taking yet another ferry to Oban either on Sunday or Monday.

However, before any of that took place I needed to take care of a couple of things. The first was breakfast. I’m not going to lie, this was not nearly as impressive as the breakfast feast at Gary and Fiona’s. This morning’s breakfast consisted of an orange. Yup. That’s it. Although, the orange was later supplemented by some local chocolate ice cream. Yes, I know. Not exactly a healthy breakfast … but it was pretty tasty.

The lone remaining task before boarding the ferry was the result of an email I received from Gary this morning. He had mentioned a family tradition which involved visiting “The Sailor’s Grave” which was located not far up the road from the ferry terminal. I did some research into “The Sailor’s Grave” and it would seem there are a few variations of the story. All interesting but far too much to include here. Suffice it to say, I honoured Gary’s family tradition and am happy to have been included in it.

The ferry crossing from Lochranza to Claonig was entirely uneventful – but beautiful. Did I mention the sun was shining again?

The ride from Claonig to Kennacraig was essentially uneventful but it did give me my first experience with Scotland’s single track roads. The roads I THOUGHT were narrow yesterday now seemed like vast vehicular corridors. These single track roads are very much that. Single track. Fortunately, the drivers along this particular road were patient and I did my best to stay out of the way.

My arrival in Kennacraig presented my first dilemma of the day. It would seem I had a choice. I could wait a few hours to catch the ferry to Port Ellen on the south of the island (as planned) or I could take the next ferry (leaving in mere minutes) to Port Askaig on the northeast part of the island. Either way, I was going to end up in Port Askaig eventually as that’s where I would catch the ferry to Oban.

The main reason for going to Port Ellen was to visit a particular distillery. Essentially, my decision came down to either waiting a few hours and sticking to the plan. Or taking the imminently leaving ferry and then biking down to Port Ellen (which of course would mean backtracking to Port Askaig later). Despite my dislike for backtracking, the thought of waiting around for a ferry seemed less pleasant.

Like my previous ferry crossings, the ferry crossing to Port Askaig was uneventful. My arrival at Port Askaig was somewhat less uneventful. Upon arriving I thought I’d do a quick check to see what time the ferry departed to Oban so I could plan my stay on Islay. The good news was that the ferry left at 10:15 AM. I figured that was good news because I could spend tomorrow biking around the island and visiting a couple of distilleries and then I could catch the ferry first thing the next morning. Insert “I’ve made a huge mistake” here. As you may have guessed, there was “bad news” in this scenario. The bad news is that the ferry to Oban doesn’t leave until Wednesday (today is Saturday).

Did I mention Islay is a very small island? Well, it was now a very small island on which I’m about to spend three full days. I believe “Oops!” would be the word I would be looking for. Okay, there may be a few other words too.

With my fate sealed, I decided I’d make the best of the situation and visit the Caol Ila Distillery which is only about 2 km from the ferry terminal. Side note: When I bought my ticket for the ferry, I was informed that there was a BIG hill as soon as I got off the ferry. I won’t lie, I never know how to interpret such statements as most non-cyclists tend not to have a very strong ability to assess hills. In this case, the woman at the ferry terminal was accurate. Very accurate. The hill in question was in fact fact rather steep – 9-14% grades. On the upside (no pun intended), it was a relatively short hill.

In keeping with the apparent theme of the day, I arrived at the Caol Ila Distillery to find that I had missed the final tour of the day. I’m beginning to think the Isle of Islay doesn’t like me very much. Either that or I should’ve looked at vital schedules a little more closely. As usual, I have only myself to blame. However, my trip to Caol Ila wasn’t an entire loss. While there I met two guys from Austria who were sitting outside of the distillery, having lunch and sampling some whisky. We chatted for a while and they mentioned that since I had some extra time on my hands I should visit the Kilchoman (pronounced Kil-ho-man) Distillery on the other side of the island. Again, it’s a small island.

With the day not at all working out like I had planned, I decided it was time to look for a place to camp. I knew I’d be wild camping tonight as the two campgrounds on the island weren’t particularly conveniently located and, quite simply, there was no reason NOT to wild camp. All I needed to do was find a decent spot.

Finding a decent spot ended up being significantly more challenging than I had anticipated. And I pedalled far more kilometres than expected in the process. Although, in the process I stumbled upon Loch Finlaggan which was an interesting place with a few ruins (much more ruined than Lochranza Castle). I wandered around Loch Finlaggan for a bit – initially I had hoped I might be able to camp there but there were signs forbidding it. I was tempted to “not see” those signs but given the long hours of daylight in this part of the world I wasn’t yet too concerned about being able to find a place before dark (sunset is after 10:00 PM).

I’d rather not say how many kilometres I pedalled looking for a camping spot. Suffice it to say, it was a lot. At one point I found a great place on top of a hill but it was VERY windy and I wasn’t confident I would still be at the top of the hill in the morning. I decided to make that location my backup plan and continued my search.

As my search continued I managed to find a WiFi connection which I was able to use to find a potential camping area recommended for camper vans. At this point I was starting to get tired and, I’m hesitant to admit this, I still hadn’t eaten anything since the orange and ice cream I had for breakfast about 10 hours ago. I’ve heard that in survival situations hunger can lead to poor decision making. While this clearly wasn’t a survival situation, my decision making process wasn’t in top form.

As I made my way to where I hoped to find a “camper van friendly” camping spot, I came across a lush patch of grass next to Loch Ardaal. I wasn’t sure if this was the spot I was aiming for but I was sure it was the spot I was going to stop for the night. It really was a great place for a tent. Soft ground and enough wind to keep the bugs away. Well, there were bugs but not until after I had set up my tent and was comfortably relaxing in my tent.

I’m not going to lie, despite the lack of actual cycling mileage today I ended the day very tired and happy to be finally resting comfortably in my tent. The fact that I have to figure out how to spend three days on Islay is something I’ll worry about tomorrow.

Today’s totals:
Distance travelled: 47.13 km
Ride time: 3:22:24
Average speed: 13.97 km/h
Maximum speed: 51.97 km/h
Ferries: 2
Ferries missed: 1
Distilleries: 1

Note: I hate to say this but if you find any typos in this post, please let me know. I’m racing to get this uploaded before the library closes.