Today was the day of the little ferry from Gourock to Dunoon and cycling into the highlands of Scotland.
We left with sunny spells an a south to south-westerly wind which was just what we wanted.
We set off from the Premier Inn at 7.50hrs and cycled through Crosshouse and Irvine.
In Irvine we met up with Tony who had left the hotel a bit earlier but had taken a wrong turn somewhere towards the A71.
After Irvine we headed towards Kilwinning on the A737.At Kilwinning we joined the A78 towards Largs.
A beautiful seaview was in our sight when coming down the hill towards the seafront.
We cycled in gorgeous sunshine and roads along the shore and soon we were in Largs for our 1st waterstop of the day.
Opposite our waterstop was Nardini's,an art deco style ice cream parlour,where we stopped for coffee/hot chocolate and cake.
Phillip's saddle had been bugging him for the last 2 days so he decided to ditch the Brooks and replace it by a saddle from the bike shop around the corner.
We then continued towards Gourock where the were going to catch ferry to Dunoon.We were still cycling on the coastline road and stopped quickly at a very cute little lighthouse on the roadside.
Soon after we reached the ferry and got on board after collecting our tickets.
In a way we were lucky as almost immediately after getting on board we left for Dunoon.
Several photos were taken on board and of Dunoon on the other side with its most stunning mountainous backdrop.
The ferry trip only lasted about 20min and once we got back on land we only had 7m to cycle to our lunchstop at Benmore Botanical Gardens.
The lunch itself was in an old barn at the back of the gardens.
After stopping for about half an hour we were on our way again and we cycled along the most stunning shores of Loch Eck.
After a couple of miles we spotted Dave,one of the fast boys who decided to cycle on his own today,on the roadside with a puncture.We stopped and quickly helped him on his way again and he cycled with us to the 2nd waterstop.
Just as we were about the leave the fast guys arrived and soon they had caught up and 2 of them passed us.
As I was feeling good I decided to follow them and I cycled with Brian the last 10m.Darren,the iron man guy,was a bit too fast but he was so kind to wait for us as we entered Inveraray and the 3 of us then cycled to the Loch Fyne Hotel.
Beer/ale of the day: Jarl,a hoppy blond ale brewed in Argyll
Today:distance 77.42m,moving time 4hr47min,avg speed 16.2mph,max speed 36.5mph,elevation 1991ft
Total distance 695m,total moving time 46hr57min,total elevation 28793ft
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