Scenic… and wet

Day 2

July 15. 2025

Isle of Aaran, Ayreshire

Stats: 42 miles. AIS: 4:23 (Ass in saddle), Elev. 1814 ft. Avg speed: 9.4 mph

The days are long in Scotland. Dawn is at 5am and sunset at 9:15pm. We woke up to sunshine but the forecast for today is some kind of rain all day until about 8pm

We have a ferry to catch at 12 noon. The drive is 1.5 hours to the ferry. We arrive a bit early and take a ride to the local Post Office where they have banking machines so Curt can get some cash $$. Unfortunately that wasn’t possible at this Post Office so we headed back to the ferry terminal. There was a light rain at the time.

The ferry ride was 1 hour so we had our sandwiches on the ferry. I don’t know how ethical it was but we made a sandwich at the hotel breakfast. There was a nice assortment of meats, cheeses, vegetables and breads at hotel continental breakfasts. 

Isle of Aaran is described as a mini Scotland. All the mountains are toward the northside of the island and the rest in rolling farmland. Sheep are the predominant farm animal but there are cows too.

Our trip around the Isle of Aaran starts in Brodick. We rode clockwise around the island. Our 42 mile ride today leaves us 14 miles for tomorrow to catch the ferry back at 10:30am.

We started our ride about 1:30pm. It started out with a quick steep uphill climb. After that abrupt ascent we quickly shed our extra layers. Then it was up and down, climbing and descending with some rolling hills for the rest of the day. The temperature was pleasant in the 60’s. There were only a few places in the last quarter of the ride that the road was somewhat flat along the coastline.

We were on a highway that encircled the island. The traffic was really pretty light with a few buses, mostly cars and a few pickup trucks. The cars in Scotland (and Europe) are much much smaller than American vehicles. They can easily slip around us on the road. The road is very narrow and has no shoulders. Basically the cars had to give us the right away and work around us from the other lane. It was a winding, twisty road with the path of sight never very far ahead. I never ever had any fear of the cars passing us. No angry drivers! Pleasant and refreshing difference from cycling in the states!

We are getting used to riding and driving from the left side of the road. I do have to remember to think about it when I’m getting started after stopping somewhere to visit.

About 15 miles into the ride it started to drizzle. Then the drizzle turned into an outright downpour. We found a quick place to stop but it wasn’t out of the rain. Good opportunity to find out the quality of all our rain gear! No matter what, you are always damp inside. This lasted for quite awhile… at least an hour. We stopped at that farmhouse for about 15 minutes and it let up a bit… back to steady drizzle so we were on our way again.

We came to a wee town with a pub. We stopped to get a coffee and warmup for a bit. We were soaking wet and dripping. While in the pub it started another downpour… good timing! After about 1 hour we rode on. It was off and on drizzle for the rest of our ride. But we were all comfortable.

The scenery was so beautiful. At about 15 miles to go we had 2 more climbs before we would get to the town of Lochranza. One climb was very steep 17%! For me it was one glance and I knew it was a walk. The whole ride was beautiful but after the big climb it was getting long. We were all tired and hungry by the time we finished riding about 7:30pm. Long day!

Our accommodation for the evening was a Scotland Hostel. We were all happy to arrive. Like I said… tired and hungry.

It was a challenging 42 miles to Lochranza.

The weather got nice on the very last stretch. When we got to the hostel the midges were swarming. You can feel them biting but not see them. Kind of like no seeums. But the bites didn’t seem to cause any reaction in any of us. Mostly very annoying.

We all shared a room in with 4 bunkbeds. There were little lockers, one for each. A small table and wash basin. A decent sized room for the 4 of us. Down the hall were the bathrooms and showers.

The shower felt so good. Hot, hot water to warm us up and thaw out my feet. I knew they were cold but it took my feet awhile to warmup. It felt so good… and great water pressure too.

Next was dinner. The hostel sold frozen individual dinners (about 5 choices). We each bought a meal and a beer. There is a big kitchen for cooking meals and a nice dining room. There were quite a few people spending the night. There seemed to be a variety of ages. Some in cars, some bicycles and some hiking. What started as a youth hostel is now open to anyone. Sandy joined the Scotland Hostel organization.

The hostel had a separate locked garage for our bicycles. There was also an outroom that had washers/dryers and a separate drying room. Many people were using the drying room for the evening.

None of us lasted long after dinner. It was after 10pm. I had the top bunk. It’s been awhile since I’ve slept in a bunk bed. I will say they are easy to climb up into but challenging to get down. The ladder gap at the top is very narrow and hard to fit your legs and hips to turn around and go down. I managed but it wasn’t easy. The bed was comfortable though.